NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that a divorced Muslim woman can seek maintenance from her husband under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, would not come in her way.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Justice Augustine George Masih pronounced their separate but concurring judgments on the subject, rejecting the contention the 1986 law should prevail here.
The court ruled that Section 125 CrPC would be applicable to all women and not just married women.
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In his plea, a Muslim man contended that a divorced Muslim woman cannot seek maintenance under Section 125 of the CrPC as the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, will prevail over it.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, provides for a procedure for a Muslim woman to claim maintenance during divorce.
The law was introduced after the 1985 Shah Bano judgement, which had allowed a Muslim woman to take maintenance from her husband under Section 125 of the CrPC.
Senior advocate Gaurav Agarwal assisted the court as amicus curiae in the matter, which was related to the special leave petition filed by Mohd Abdul Samad against the Telangana High Court's order of December 13, 2023.
"In this petition, the challenge is to the filing of a petition under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC) by the respondent divorced Muslim woman," the court had noted.
Petitioner's counsel senior advocate S Wasim A Qadri submitted that in view of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, a divorced Muslim woman is not entitled to maintain a petition under Section 125 of the CrPC.
He said the plea has to proceed under the provisions of the 1986 Act, which is more beneficial to the Muslim woman as compared to Section 125 of the CrPC.
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