Madurai Bench of the High Court of Madras on Friday rapped a Jamaath (congregation of Muslims) for having issued a Fatwa against a woman’s father for having approached the High Court seeking an interim stay against Triple Talaq (divorce) pronounced by her estranged husband.

The Fatwa issued by the Tamil Nadu Jamaathul Ulama Sabha had stated that the father “ought not to have gone to the High Court where Kafir judges are passing orders against Islamic and Quranic injunctions and that the Jamaath will not permit the High Court to pass any such wrong orders.”

Condemning the Jamaath for issuing such Fatwa, Justice P.N. Prakash observed, “Before parting, this Court places on record its strong disapproval of the Fatwa issued by the Jamaath denigrating the judiciary and chastising Naseema’s father for having approached the Secular Courts established by law for redressal of their grievances. This is indeed disturbing. Albeit boycott of Courts by Lawyers, the present Court system only gives identity and respect to the Advocates in our society. Judges are only passing features, as they have to move out of the portals of the Court on superannuation. If Jamaaths are going to replace the existing Courts, the first casualty will be the Bar.”

The Court made the observations while disposing of a petition filed by the woman’s husband to quash a cheating case registered against him and his family by the woman. The Fatwa was issued by the Jamaath after it was approached by the Petitioner-husband, informing it that the High Court had issued an interim stay against a District Court order which had upheld the talaq issued by him. The woman had now contended that her husband and his family members had pronounced Talaq through deceit.

Allowing the petition partly, Mr. Justice Prakash quashed the complaint only with respect to the husband’s sisters and brothers-in-law, and ordered that the Petitioner and his parents would have to face prosecution since a prima facie case had been made out against them by the wife.