In what appears as a move to set up kangaroo courts governed by Sharia law, Telangana government is reportedly contemplating on extending judicial powers to Waqf Boards, a report published by Telangana Today said.
The Minority Welfare Minister Koppula Eshwar said that the issue of granting judicial status to Waqf Board will be soon considered by the Chief Minister.
While answering to the question raised by AIMIM floor leader Akbarududdin Owaisi, the minister assured that the government is committed to protecting the Waqf properties across the state and it would soon call a meeting with respect to the delay in gazette notification of the details of the second survey of the Waqf lands.
Since a long time, fundamentalist Muslim bodies, including the All India Muslim Personal Law Board(AIMPLB) had expressed its desire of setting up Sharia courts in India. AIMPLB had gone to the extent of claiming that it wants to establish Sharia courts in each district of the country.
Granting legitimacy to Sharia court would invite disaster for the country’s judicial system
The Telangana government’s decision to consider legitimising Sharia courts is fraught with dangerous consequences and might spell doom for the law and order situation in the country. If authorised, the precedent set by the Telangana government, might be exploited by other state governments, who would use it to pass similar orders in their respective states to garner the support of Muslim fundamentalists.
The Sharia courts would undermine the authority of the judicial courts and would be akin to a parallel judicial system in the country.
It would also provide an opportunity to the Mullahs to establish a more puritanical form of Islam, and conferring them with the authority of punishing those who are seen infringing it. The rabid Mullahs, with their overzealous penchant for imposing medieval versions of Islam, would run amok with the newfound legitimacy, resulting in the total collapse of the judicial order in the state.