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
2015 Dec Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 6 Family Law II (Mohammedan Law and Indian Succession Act) 2015 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 2015 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 2015 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 · 13 questions answered
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.
Q1Explain the origin and development of Muslim law.[16]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the answer traces the forces that made Muslim law what it is, rather than a bare list of dates: (1) its origin in revelation, the Quran and the Sunna, and the customs of Arabia they reformed (women's shares, dower to the wife, limits on wives and on divorce, iddat); (2) its development by the jurists (consensus, analogy, the schools, and the turn from ijtihad to taqlid); (3) its development in India through four channels: administration by the State (the Mughals, the Fatawa-e-Alamgiri, the plan of 1772, Regulations that let custom prevail), legislation (1913, 1937, 1939, 1986, 1995 and 2025, 2019), judicial interpretation (Abdul Kadir, Shamim Ara, Danial Latifi) and the Constitution (Shayara Bano; Sarla Mudgal on a uniform civil code); an assessment; a table; a conclusion.
Force 1: revelation reforming custom
The starting point: the customs of Arabia
Before Islam, Arabian society was governed by tribal custom. A man could marry as many wives as he wished and divorce them at will. Inheritance passed to the adult men who could fight. Women and young children usually took nothing. A bride's price was paid to her guardian, not to her.
The Quran and the Sunna
Islam did not abolish custom wholesale. It reformed it, and the reforms are the origin of most rules a student learns today.
- Inheritance. The Quran gave fixed shares to women: wives, daughters, mothers and sisters. A daughter takes half a son's share, but she takes.
- Dower. Dower became the wife's own property, not a price paid to her family.
- Wives. The number of wives was limited to four, with a command of equal treatment.
- Divorce. Talaq was permitted but regulated, with a waiting period (iddat) and a chance to revoke.
- Maintenance and iddat. The wife's maintenance and the divorced woman's iddat were fixed as duties.
The Prophet's words, deeds and approvals (the Sunna) explained and filled out these texts.
Force 2: the jurists
After the Prophet's death, new questions arose that the texts did not answer.
- Consensus (ijma). The agreement of the qualified jurists of an age on a point of law became a source in itself.
- Analogy (qiyas). A rule could be extended to a new case with the same reason.
- The schools. In the eighth and ninth centuries the jurists' differing methods produced the Sunni schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii, Hanbali) and the Shia schools.
- Taqlid. In time the view prevailed that the great jurists had settled the law. Later scholars were expected to follow their school (taqlid) rather than reason afresh (ijtihad). That gave stability but slowed growth from within.
Force 3: Muslim law in India
Channel 1: administration by the State
- The Mughal period. Muslim law was the general law of the State. Under Aurangzeb a digest of Hanafi law, the Fatawa-e-Alamgiri, was compiled.
- The British period. Warren Hastings's plan of 1772 directed that, in suits on inheritance, marriage, caste and religious usages, Muslims be governed by their own law. Courts worked from English translations such as the Hedaya.
- Custom let in. Provincial Acts and Regulations told the courts to apply custom where it was proved, and personal law only in default. In much of northern India the customs proved excluded daughters and widows from inheritance. So Muslim women lost shares the Quran gave them.
Channel 2: legislation
Parliament never codified Muslim law. It legislated on particular problems.
| Act | What it changed |
|---|---|
| Mussalman Wakf Validating Act 1913 | restored the family wakf after the Privy Council's decisions against it; repealed in 2016 with its rule saved |
| Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act 1937 | made Muslim personal law the rule of decision "notwithstanding any custom or usage to the contrary"; section 6 repealed the old directions to apply custom |
| Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939 | gave wives of every school nine grounds for a court decree |
| Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986 | set out a divorced woman's rights after Shah Bano |
| Waqf Act 1995, amended in 2025 | regulates wakf property and mutawallis |
| Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act 2019 | made instant triple talaq void and an offence |
What the 1937 Act left to custom
The Shariat Act did not end custom everywhere. Adoption, wills and legacies are not among the subjects in section 2. A Muslim may bring them under Muslim law by a declaration under section 3, for himself, his minor children and their descendants. Until such a declaration is made, a proved custom on those subjects may still apply. And agricultural land was kept out of section 2, leaving it to State laws.
The residual source: justice, equity and good conscience
Where no statute, decision or rule of Muslim law answers a question, Indian courts decide by justice, equity and good conscience. It is a last resort, not a licence to set aside a clear rule. Muslim law has its own parallels in juristic preference (istihsan) and regard for the public good (istislah).
Channel 3: judicial interpretation
Judges have developed the law by going back to the sources and by reading statutes in the light of fairness.
Abdul Kadir v. Salima (1886) ILR 8 All 149. A husband sued for restitution of conjugal rights, and the wife refused to live with him while her prompt dower was unpaid. The Full Bench adopted Mahmood J.'s opinion, worked out from the classical texts themselves. Marriage is a civil contract and dower is a debt. The wife may refuse herself until prompt dower is paid, so the decree is conditional on payment. The case shows a court building Indian Muslim law on the original authorities.
Shamim Ara v. State of Uttar Pradesh AIR 2002 SC 3551. A husband pleaded in his written statement an earlier talaq that he never proved. The Supreme Court held that such a plea does not effect a divorce; the talaq must be proved. It approved the view that talaq must be for reasonable cause and preceded by an attempt at reconciliation through two arbiters. The Court thus narrowed the husband's power by reading the Quran's own requirements.
Danial Latifi v. Union of India AIR 2001 SC 3958. The 1986 Act was challenged as taking away the divorced woman's rights. A Constitution Bench upheld it. It read the husband's duty to make "a reasonable and fair provision" for her future, within iddat, as reaching beyond iddat. The Court saved the Act by construing it to protect her.
Channel 4: the Constitution
The Constitution guarantees equality (Article 14) and religious freedom (Article 25). Article 44 directs the State to endeavour to secure a uniform civil code.
Shayara Bano v. Union of India AIR 2017 SC 4609. By a majority of three to two the Supreme Court set aside instant triple talaq. Nariman J. treated section 2 of the Shariat Act as a law that must satisfy Article 14, and held the practice manifestly arbitrary.
Sarla Mudgal v. Union of India AIR 1995 SC 1531. Hindu husbands converted to Islam to take second wives. The Supreme Court held the second marriages void and the husbands guilty of bigamy. It also urged the Government to move towards a uniform civil code.
Assessment
Muslim law in India has developed unevenly. Some areas, such as divorce at the wife's instance and the divorced woman's maintenance, have been reshaped by statute and the courts. Others, such as marriage, dower, gifts and inheritance, still rest on the classical texts and decisions. Change has come piecemeal, usually after a hard case, and the debate over a uniform civil code continues. A student should therefore present the law in layers: the classical rule first, then any statute, then the latest binding decision.
Conclusion. Muslim law began as revelation reforming Arabian custom: the Quran and the Sunna gave women shares and dower and regulated marriage and divorce. The jurists developed it through consensus, analogy and the schools. In India it was administered by the Mughals and the British, who for a time let custom displace it. The Shariat Act 1937 restored it, and the 1913, 1939, 1986 and 2019 Acts reshaped particular parts. The courts have developed it further (Abdul Kadir, Shamim Ara, Danial Latifi), and the Constitution now tests it, as Shayara Bano and Sarla Mudgal show.
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