Can Muslim divorced women claim maintenance allowance directly against the Wakf Board, or, she should follow the procedure mentioned under Section 4 of the Muslim Women (Protection of Right on Divorce) Act, 1986? Discuss with reference to case law.

Question: Can Muslim divorced women claim maintenance allowance directly against the Wakf Board, or, she should follow the procedure mentioned under Section 4 of the Muslim Women (Protection of Right on Divorce) Act, 1986? Discuss with reference to case law. [HJS 1999]

Find the question and answer of Muslim Law only on Legal Bites. [Can Muslim divorced women claim maintenance allowance directly against the Wakf Board, or, she should follow the procedure mentioned under Section 4 of the Muslim Women (Protection of Right on Divorce) Act, 1986? Discuss with reference to case law.]

Answer

A divorced Muslim woman unable to maintain herself can directly claim maintenance from the State Wakf Board in the first instance under Section 4 of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, and in the same proceeding can plead the inability of her relatives to maintain her. Relatives can be added as parties to the litigation if they have enough means to pay maintenance, T.N. Wakf Board v. Syed Fatima Nachi, (1996) 4 SCC 616.

The Act as Preamble suggests, came to protect the rights of Muslim women who have been divorced by, or obtained divorce from, their husbands and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

A bare reading of the provision shows that a divorced woman is entitled to claim a reasonable and fair maintenance from such of her relatives as would be entitled to inherit her property on her death, according to Muslim Law, provided she has not re-married and is not able to maintain herself. Such maintenance, however, shall be payable by such relatives in proportion to the share which they would inherit in her property and at such periods as the Magistrate may specify in his order.

If the divorced woman has children, the first proviso to sub-section (1) of Section 4 mandates that the liability maintain her firstly lies on them. In the event of her children being unable to maintain her, the liability shifts to her parents under the same proviso. The liability of relatives other than the children and the parents follows, sequentially, subject to the conditions as embodied in the proviso. The liability of the relatives does not depend on the contingency that the relatives do not depend on the contingency that divorced woman has a property which they would inherit.

The speculative plea of any relative that she or she may not be available to be an heir on the date when the divorced woman would actually die, would neither be here nor there. Climbing down, if the divorced woman has no relatives as mentioned in subsection (1) or relatives who do have not enough means to pay for her maintenance, the State Wakf Board functioning in the area, in which the divorced woman is resident, has been foisted with the liability to pay suitable maintenance to her, on the Magistrate's order and/or direction.

Thus, Muslim divorced women can claim maintenance allowance directly against the Wakf Board rather than following the entire procedure mentioned under Section 4 of the Muslim Women (Protection of Right on Divorce) Act, 1986.

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