Calcutta, Aug. 16: Hours after the Supreme Court admitted a public interest litigation on a “parallel Muslim judicial system” and served a notice to the Bengal government, jurists in the city admitted that such a system was “firmly in place in the state”.

Former Calcutta High Court judge Nur-e-Alam Choudhury, said “it was time to do away with this parallel judicial system”.

“I think the Supreme Court admitting such a PIL is a step in the right direction,” he said. “We cannot have two systems of justice. Constitutionally only the courts of law set up by the state can carry out the function of dispensing justice.”

The secretary of the West Bengal unit of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Mafihur Rahman, admitted that it runs several “fora for arbitration of disputes” in the state.

However, he said these were not “Muslim courts” and that there was no contradiction between the system of justice set up by the state and the Dar-ul-Quazas, which have been sanctioned by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, that they ran.

“The misconception ?which perhaps is what the Supreme Court is under ? is in assuming that these are court dispensing justice,” Rahman said.

The state government has refused to comment until it received a copy of the Supreme Court’s notice. State law minister Nisith Adhikari even said he was not aware of the existence of such courts.

Justice Bhagabati Prosad Banerjee, however, said that during his term as a judge of Calcutta High Court several such “judgments” passed by religious “courts” had been referred to him.

“The Supreme Court had on at least three earlier occasions said that two systems of justice cannot prevail in the country.

“The act of admitting the petition should be seen in the light of its earlier observations.”

Educationist and author Hossainur Rahman echoed the jurists. “It is wrong to think that all Muslims want this parallel system to continue,” he added.