Study Guide · Chapter 10
H. Personal Law, Religion & Gender Justice
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| Case | Year | Bench | Holding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mohd. Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum | 1985 | 5-judge | Held a divorced Muslim woman is entitled to maintenance under the secular Sec. 125 CrPC even beyond the iddat period — the ensuing political controversy led Parliament to pass the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986. |
| Sarla Mudgal v. Union of India | 1995 | 3-judge | Held a Hindu husband who converts to Islam solely to contract a second marriage without dissolving the first (under Hindu law) commits bigamy under Sec. 494 IPC — conversion alone does not dissolve a valid first marriage. |
| Danial Latifi v. Union of India | 2001 | 5-judge | Upheld the constitutional validity of the Muslim Women Act, 1986, but read it harmoniously with Shah Bano — interpreted it to mean a divorced Muslim woman is entitled to a fair and reasonable provision extending beyond the iddat period, not merely maintenance confined to it. |
| Shayara Bano v. Union of India | 2017 | 5-judge | 3:2 — held instant "triple talaq" (talaq-e-biddat) unconstitutional and void as manifestly arbitrary; the ruling led to Parliament enacting a 2019 law criminalising the practice. |
| Indian Young Lawyers Assn. v. State of Kerala (Sabarimala case) | 2018 | 5-judge | 4:1 — held Sabarimala temple's exclusion of women aged 10–50 violated Arts. 14, 15(1) and 17, and was not protected as an "essential religious practice" under Art. 25. (A subsequent nine-judge reference on essential religious practices across faiths, framed in 2019/20, remains pending.) |
Notes. Shah Bano and Danial Latifi should be read together, not as opposed — Danial Latifi is the Court reconciling the 1986 Act's text with Shah Bano's spirit rather than reversing it. Sarla Mudgal is frequently tested alongside the (still-unenacted) Uniform Civil Code debate under Art. 44.
Mnemonic. "Shah Sarla Danially Shayara's Sabarimala" (SSDSS) — Shah Bano (1985) → Sarla Mudgal (1995) → Danial Latifi (2001) → Shayara Bano (2017) → Sabarimala (2018). Notice the bookends: it starts with "Bano" (Shah Bano) and almost ends with "Bano" again (Shayara Bano) — two different women, two different questions (maintenance vs. triple talaq), thirty-two years apart.
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