Recently, a Muslim woman has filed a Petition in the Kerala High Court, stating that the provisions of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, (1937 Act) and the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application (Kerala Amendment) Act, 1963 (1963 State Act) discriminate between male and female Muslim intestate successors.

The petitioner challenged the validity of a few provisions of the two abovementioned acts stating that they violate the right to equality guaranteed under Article 15 of the Indian Constitution.

“As per Shariat, female children are discriminated as against male children, i.e., the share a female inherits is only half of what a male child inherits. This is a clear violation of Article 15 of the Constitution of India. The Sharia law applicable to the extent of not giving equal share to a female compared to a male is void by virtue of Article 13 of the Constitution of India,” the plea stated.

Earlier, the woman had filed a petition in 1994 in a lower court claiming shares in her deceased father’s property as per Shariat law. As per the petitioner, she was unaware of the void nature of said law which discriminates between male and female children by appropriating shares in 2:1. Thereafter, the court passed a preliminary and final decree following the Sharia Law, allowing the petitioner to only half of the share allotted to her brothers.