KSLU Solved Question Papers
Family Law II (Mohammedan Law and Indian Succession Act)
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 6
2013 Dec Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 6 Family Law II (Mohammedan Law and Indian Succession Act) 2013 Dec Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2013 Dec examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2013 Dec examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all five questions. (2) Figures to the right indicate marks. (3) Answers should be written either in English or Kannada completely.
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1
Unit I
(a)State the importance of Shariat Act, 1937 dealing with the application of Mohammedan Law in India.[15]
Answer
For full marks, cover: why the Act was needed (custom displacing Muslim law in British India, above all against women's inheritance); the provisions section by section: section 1 (title and extent), section 2 (the override of custom, the subjects listed, the two exceptions, and "where the parties are Muslims", with Narantakath Avullah on who is a Muslim), section 3 (the optional declaration for adoption, wills and legacies, and who may make it), section 4 (rules), section 5 (repealed by the 1939 Act) and section 6 (repeal of provincial laws); the Kerala amendment; how courts apply section 2 (Siddiq Ahmad) and how it was tested in Shayara Bano; the importance of the Act summed up; a conclusion.
Why the Act was needed
Before 1937, many Muslim communities in British India were governed not by Muslim law but by custom. Some Khoja and Cutchi Memon communities followed Hindu-style customs of succession, and agricultural tribes in the Punjab kept land within the male line. The result was that Muslim women were often denied the shares the Quran gave them. Provincial laws also told courts to apply custom where it was proved. Muslim leaders and women's groups pressed for the Shariat to be restored as the governing law.
The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act 1937 answered that demand. It made Muslim personal law, not custom, the rule of decision in the main family matters.
Section 1: title and extent
The Act may be called the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act 1937. It extends to the whole of India.
Section 2: the heart of the Act
Section 2 says that, "notwithstanding any custom or usage to the contrary", the rule of decision "in cases where the parties are Muslims" shall be the Muslim personal law (Shariat) in all questions regarding:
- intestate succession;
- special property of females, including personal property inherited or obtained under contract, gift or any other provision of personal law;
- marriage;
- dissolution of marriage, including talaq, ila, zihar, lian, khula and mubaraat;
- maintenance;
- dower;
- guardianship;
- gifts;
- trusts and trust properties; and
- wakfs.
Two exceptions. The section does not cover:
- questions relating to agricultural land, which remained subject to local laws and custom; and
- charities, charitable institutions and charitable and religious endowments, which are kept out of the word "wakfs".
"Where the parties are Muslims." The section applies only if the parties are Muslims. So a court must first decide who is a Muslim.
Narantakath Avullah v. Parakkal Mammu (1922) 43 MLJ 663 (Madras High Court). A wife remarried, claiming that her husband had left Islam by joining the Ahmadiyya movement, and she was prosecuted for bigamy. The High Court held that the Ahmadis accept the Kalma, the prophethood of Muhammad and the Quran. Those are the essential conditions of being a Muslim. So the husband remained a Muslim, and the marriage subsisted. The case shows the test a court applies before section 2 can operate.
Section 3: the optional declaration
Adoption, wills and legacies are not in section 2. Section 3 lets a person bring them in by choice.
- Who may declare. A Muslim, competent to contract under section 11 of the Indian Contract Act 1872, and resident in the territories to which the Act extends.
- How. By a declaration in the prescribed form before the prescribed authority. If the authority refuses, an appeal lies to an officer appointed by the State Government.
- Effect. Section 2 then applies to the declarant, his minor children and their descendants, as if adoption, wills and legacies were also listed.
Section 4: rules
The State Government may make rules prescribing the authority, the form of the declaration and the fees. The rules are laid before the State Legislature.
Section 5: repealed
Section 5 once let a Muslim wife obtain dissolution of her marriage on certain grounds. It was repealed by section 6 of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939, which gave her a fuller set of grounds.
Section 6: repeals
Section 6 repealed provisions in earlier provincial laws, so far as they conflicted with the Act. Among them were the Bombay Regulation IV of 1827 and the Madras Civil Courts Act 1873. Others were in the Oudh Laws Act 1876, the Punjab Laws Act 1872 and the Central Provinces Laws Act 1875. Those provisions had told courts to apply custom.
The Kerala amendment
Kerala substituted its own section 2 in 1963 (Kerala Act 42 of 1963). The Kerala version drops the exception for agricultural land, so Muslim personal law governs such land in Kerala too.
Section 2 in the courts
Applied. Siddiq Ahmad v. Shaukat Ali (Allahabad High Court, 13 September 2022). In a partition suit over a Sunni woman's houses, the courts below had divided her estate equally between her husband and son. The High Court applied the Hanafi law of inheritance, which section 2 makes the rule of decision for intestate succession. The husband took one-fourth as a sharer, and the son the rest as a residuary. The Court also applied the presumption that a Muslim is a Sunni and a Sunni a Hanafi.
Tested. Shayara Bano v. Union of India (2017) 9 SCC 1. Muslim women challenged instant triple talaq. A Constitution Bench set it aside by a majority of three to two. Nariman J., for himself and Lalit J., held that section 2 is a "law in force" within Article 13. To the extent that it recognised and enforced triple talaq, it was void for manifest arbitrariness under Article 14. So personal law applied through section 2 is subject to the Fundamental Rights.
What "rule of decision" means
Section 2 does not create new law. It tells the courts which law to apply. In every listed question between Muslims, the court must decide by the Shariat. A party can no longer prove a family or tribal custom to displace it. The direction binds every court that has to decide such a question.
A short example. Before 1937, a Khoja family might prove a custom that daughters take nothing from their father's estate. After the Act, if the father dies owning a house in a town, the daughters inherit under Muslim law, each taking half a son's share. The custom no longer counts. If the estate were agricultural land outside Kerala, the exception in section 2 would leave the question to local law.
What the Act does not cover
- Agricultural land, outside Kerala.
- Charitable endowments, which are left to the general law and now to the Waqf Act 1995.
- Adoption, wills and legacies, unless a declaration is made under section 3.
- Subjects not listed, such as pre-emption, which applies to Muslims as personal law or by statute or custom, but not through section 2.
Statutes that build on it
Later Acts sit on the foundation the 1937 Act laid. The Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939 gives Muslim wives judicial divorce. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986 governs rights on divorce. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act 2019 makes instant talaq void. Where such a statute speaks, it prevails over the uncodified Shariat.
The importance of the Act
- Uniformity among Muslims. It replaced varied local customs with one body of law for Muslims across India.
- Justice for women. It restored the shares and rights the Shariat gave women, especially in succession and in their own property.
- Clarity for courts. Courts no longer had to inquire into proof of custom in each family.
- A gateway for reform. By listing dissolution and khula, it paved the way for the 1939 Act.
- A link to the Constitution. As Shayara Bano shows, applying personal law through a statute brought it within judicial review.
Conclusion. The Shariat Act 1937 makes Muslim personal law, notwithstanding custom, the rule of decision for Muslims. It covers succession, women's property, marriage and divorce, maintenance, dower, guardianship, gifts, trusts and wakfs. It excepts agricultural land, outside Kerala, and charitable endowments. Under section 3, a declaration brings in adoption, wills and legacies. Narantakath Avullah shows who counts as a Muslim, and Siddiq Ahmad shows section 2 applied to inheritance. Shayara Bano shows that section 2 is open to constitutional challenge.
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