The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has got proposals from various parts of the country to open 10 sharia courts (Darul Qaza), out of which five have been approved and will be opened soon, board secretary Zafaryab Jilani said on Sunday.
The other five proposals are under consideration, Jilani told reporters.
Responding to the row over the board reportedly looking to set up such sharia courts in every district of the country, Jilani said it was not true and he was misquoted.
He said that at a meeting of the board in New Delhi on Sunday, the Darul Qaza committee tabled its report which stated that from February 10 to June 30, three sharia courts have been set up—two in Mumbai and one in Lucknow.
Apart from that, the report said 10 applications had come for setting up sharia courts, out of which five have been approved, while five others were under consideration, according to Jilani.
He said among those five that have been approved, one is being inaugurated in Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, on Monday.
On July 22, a sharia court will be set up in Surat, Gujarat, while on September 9, one will be set up at a place in Maharashtra, the fourth on November 20 and the fifth one will be set up by the end of this year.
He said the news about the AIMPLB planning to set up such sharia courts in every district of the country was not correct and emphasised that the courts are set up only when a proposal comes to the board.
“Local people sponsor it [sharia court] and bear the financial burden. The board appoints the qazi. We establish it when a proposal comes to us,” Jilani said.
“The Supreme Court has already stated that it is not a parallel judicial system. The ruling by qazis is not binding on anybody. However, more than 90 per cent people accept it. These are more like arbitration councils,” Jilani said of the sharia courts.
A host of other issues such as the court developments in the Ayodhya case were also discussed during the AIMPLB meeting, he said.