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These are some passages from the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Bill, 1986. Words marked with asterisks are defined below. …The Supreme Court, in Mohd. Ahed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum and others (A.I.R. 1985 S.C. 945), has held that although Muslim law limits the husband’s liability to provide for maintenance of the divorced wife to the period of iddat, it does not contemplate or countenance the situation invisaged by section 125 of the Code of Criminal Prcedure, 1973…. This decision has led to some controversy as to the obligation of the Muslim husband to pay maintenance to the divorced wife. Opportunity has, therfore, been taken to specify the rights which a Muslim divorced woman is entitled to at the time of divorce and to protect her interests. The Bill accordingly provides for the following, among other things, namely: a) a Muslim divorced woman shall be entitled to a reasonable and fair provision and maintenance within the period of iddat* by her former husband and in case she maintains the children born to her before or after her divorce, such reasonable provision and maintenance would be extended to a period of two years from the dates of birth of the children. She will also be entitled to mehr* or dower and all the properties given to her by her relatives, friends, husband and the husbands relatives… b) where a Muslim divorced woman is unable to maintain herself after the period of iddat, the Magistrate is empowered to make an order for the payment of maintenance by her relatives who would be entitled to inherit her property on her death according to Muslim law in the proportions in which they would inherit her property. If any one of such relatives in unable to pay his or her share on the ground of his or her not having the means to pay, the Magistrate would direct other relatives who have sufficient means to pay the shares of those relatives also. But where a divorced woman has no relatives or… the other relatives who have been asked to pay the shares of the defaulting relatives also do not have the means to pay the shares of the defaulting relatives, the Magistrate would ask the State Wakf* Board to pay the maintenance… Every application by a divorced woman under section 125… of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, pending before a magistrate on the commencement of this Act shall, notwithstanding anything contained in that code… be disposed of by such magistrate in accordance with the provisions of this Act. Glossary:iddat: three months or until the delivery of an unborn child mehr: dowry Wakf: property endowed and held in trust for the Muslim community according to Islamic law
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