All India Muslim Personal Law Board warns Centre over Shariyat

LUCKNOW: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board warned the Centre not to intervene in the Shariyat - the personal laws of Muslims that have legal sanctity from the law of the land. The Board said that the new law will leave the Nikahnama redundant, which is already been approved.
Senior advocate and convenor of the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee, Zafaryab Jilani, said that the UPA government's handling of important issues pertaining to Muslims was unacceptable to the Board.
"The Shariyat acknowledges Nikahnama as a valid legal document to establish that marriage has taken place between a couple. The courts in India also acknowledge it as a legal document. However under the law on compulsory registration of marriages, the Nikahnama will be reduced to a mere piece of paper. This is direct and blatant intervention in the laws of the land and the Shariyat at the same time," Jilani said.
The Board on the inaugural day of its three-day convention at the Haj House in Mumbai, also slammed the Centre for applying delaying tactics in order to avoid living up to the commitments it has made to the Muslim community on Waqf Bill and Right to Education Act. The Board also raised questions on the law for registration of marriages and government's silence on demands to scrap section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.
The Board had earlier taken up the issue of Waqf laws with the Centre.
"All our demands and concerns are pending before a committee for quite sometime," Jilani said.