Supreme Court to consider if Muslim women can claim equality in succession

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has decided to look into an important legal issue pertaining to whether Muslim women can claim right to equality in matters of succession in light of the State's endeavour to bring in Uniform Civil Code and its 2017 Constitution bench judgment invalidating the practice of triple talaq.

A bench of Justices C T Ravikumar and Rajesh Bindal framed legal issues whether a testator, who is governed by Mohammedan Law, is entitled to execute a will of his entire estate left, according to his wish.

The court also decided to examine whether a testator, who is governed by Mohammedan Law, can execute a will to the extent of 1/3rd of the estate left by him in favour of any or more of his legal heirs without the consent of other legal heirs.

"In our view the matter requires a deeper consideration...as the issues have large ramifications and there is no direct judgment on the issue by this court," the bench said.

The bench also framed an issue whether Muslim women have right to claim equality in succession in view of the mandate of Constitution under Articles 14 (equality) and 15 (non discrimination) thereof in the light of Article 44 (State's endeavour to secure uniform civil code for citizens).

However, the court clarified that issues may be framed after hearing amicus curiae and the Attorney General and fixed the matter for hearing on July 25.

The court appointed senior advocate V Giri as amicus curiae and also sought assistance of the Attorney General.

Dealing with a civil appeal by Tarsem, the bench said different high courts were cited in terms of which a Mohammedan is not entitled to discriminate in bequeathing his estate amongst his legal heirs unless they consent for it, meaning thereby all legal heirs are to share the estate equally.

On the other side, the testator is entitled to bequeath 1/3rd of his estate in favour of third party and the balance 2/3rd will go to the legal heirs in equal shares. This bar of 1/3rd will not be applicable in case the legal heirs consent for the same, the bench said.

In one of the judgments of the Karnataka High Court in Narunnisa vs Shek Abdul Hamid, 1987, reference has been made to an earlier judgment holding that if a Mohammedan is survived by a son and a daughter and the daughter does not consent to the deposition by the testator of giving 3/4th of the property to the son and 1/4th to the daughter, she will be entitled to claim 1/3rd of the property as her share of inheritance and not 50 per cent, the bench noted.

The court said the matter would require consideration as the times have changed since those judgments were passed by the high court and also in light of its judgements in cases of Prakash and others vs Phulavati and others, 2016 and Shayara Bano vs Union of India and others, 2017.