The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has approached the Supreme Court opposing a plea that seeks “uniform grounds of divorce” for all citizens, irrespective of faith, gender or place of birth.
In its application, the law board said that personal laws do not fall within the ambit of “laws in force” in Article 13 of the Constitution.
The “expression and ‘Custom and Usage’ in Article 13 of the Constitution does not include faith of a religious denomination embedded in personal laws”, and, therefore, “all matters of faith having a direct relationship to a religious denomination being matters of personal law cannot be tested on the anvil of Articles, 14, 15, 21 and 44 of the Constitution of India”, the plea said.
The Constituent Assembly, the plea said, was aware of the distinction between “personal law” and “custom and usage” and chose advisedly to include only the latter in Article 13.
The application sought the court’s permission to be made a party in the petition filed by Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay.
