Supreme Court to Hear Three Petitions Seeking to Be Governed by Succession Act Without Leaving Islam

New Delhi: In a significant move, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a petition on whether a person born as a Muslim can be governed by the Indian Succession Act, 1925, instead of the personal law, without leaving Islam.

According to news reports, the apex court bench, comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, has agreed to hear the case filed by a Kerala-based Muslim man, Naushad K.K., who has pleaded to the court to allow him to be governed by the Succession Act and not the Shariat, without leaving his religion. 

Naushad’s plea to the top court would be a first by a Muslim man in recent times.

In April 2024, a plea was filed by a Kerala-based Muslim woman at the apex court seeking that she be governed by the succession law instead of the Muslim personal law. The court had agreed to examine the matter filed by the petitioner, Safiya P.M., who had told the court that she was a non-believer. Her plea had come in alongside a similar petition filed by another Kerala-based woman, Bushara Ali. Both Safiya and Bushara sought the change citing ‘discriminatory’ division of ancestral property under the Muslim personal law since it does not permit giving equal share to the daughters. Safiya’s plea, made through her counsel Prashant Padmanabhan, had underlined that under the personal law, Muslim women are allowed only one-third of the property. 

The apex court has since been hearing those cases. 

Prior to it, in 2016, a similar plea was filed by the Quern Sunnat Society, which too is pending in the top court. 

The bench, while agreeing to examine Thrissur-resident Naushad's plea on past April 15, said it would hear all the three petitions together from now on. 

The court has issued notices to the Union government and the Kerala government on the matter, asking them to file their responses.