MUMBAI: The city is set to get its first Darul Qaza or Shariah court to settle civil and marital disputes in the Muslim community. The court, set up by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, will be inaugurated on Monday at Anjuman-i-Islam, near CST, and will serve to fill a long-felt need of the community.

Shariah courts already function at many places in the country, such as Hyderabad, Patna and Malegaon. Here qazis appointed by the AIMPLB hear the community’s various disputes, barring criminal cases, and deliver judgements. “This court will function to settle mainly family disputes pertaining to marriage, divorce and inheritance. Marriage disputes will be settled quickly and the couples will be told to either reconcile or separate if reconciliation is not possible. It will save the community much time and money as fighting cases in civil courts is expensive and time-consuming,” said AIMPLB secretary Maulana Wali Rahmani.

For a dispute to be heard by a Shariah court, both the parties in the dispute will have to approach the court. If one of the parties has approached a civil court, then it will have to withdraw the case for the Shariah court to accept the matter.

Rahmani said Shariah courts do not compete with the civil courts. “On the contrary, Shariah courts will lower the burden of the civil courts where thousands of cases are pending and the judges are overworked,” he said.

Senior advocate and head of AIMPLB’s legal cell Yusuf Muchalla called the city’s Shariah court a “significant alternative dispute settlement mechanism”. “This court will decide within the framework of Muslim personal laws and mainly deal with matrimonial disputes. This is a kind of domestic tribunal set up by the Muslim community.” He added that district and high courts in Bihar , Jharkhand , Bengal and Orissa have upheld several decisions given by the Shariah courts established by the Imarat-e-Shariah (House of Shariah) headquartered in Patna. Muchalla maintained that the Shariah courts were well within the law of the land.

‘Shariah courts don’t compete with civil courts’

For a dispute to be heard by a Shariah court, both the parties in the dispute will have to approach the court. If one of the parties has approached a civil court, then it will have to withdraw the case for the Shariah court to accept the matter.

AIMPLB secretary Maulana Wali Rahmani said Shariah courts do not compete with the civil courts. “On the contrary, Shariah courts will lower the burden of the civil courts where thousands of cases are pending and the judges are overworked,” he said.

Senior advocate and head of AIMPLB’s legal cell Yusuf Muchalla called the city’s Shariah court a “significant alternative dispute settlement mechanism”. “This court will decide within the framework of Muslim personal laws and mainly deal with matrimonial disputes. This is a kind of domestic tribunal set up by the Muslim community.” He added that district and high courts in Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal and Orissa have upheld several decisions given by courts established by the Imarat-e-Shariah (House of Shariah) headquartered in Patna. Muchalla said that Shariah courts were within the law of the land.

