Bhopal, Nov. 9: A cleric in Madhya Pradesh has ruled that the judiciary is not competent to interpret Islamic Shariat law, triggering a controversy and drawing strong protests from the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and several community leaders.

Mufti Mohammad Rafiq Qasmi, the qazi of Dar-ul Uloom in the south-west Khargone district, issued a fatwa annulling the divorce granted by a court in Sendhwa town to Arjumand Bano on the ground that the judge was not a Muslim.

Arjumand had married Anwar Khan in 1996 but within months, she went back to her parents in Sendhwa. Subsequently, she filed for divorce in the local court and got a decision in her favour in 2004. She then married a schoolteacher in the neighbouring Barwani district.

Qasmi, however, ruled that the magistrate’s order was not acceptable in the Shariat as it was pronounced by a non-Muslim. In his fatwa, the cleric said Arjumand was still Anwar’s wife. Therefore, she should not have married again. The remarriage amounts to “haramkari” (grave sin), he added.

Arjumand alias Ranu today accused her former husband of misleading the cleric to obtain the fatwa. “The court accepted my divorce from Anwar Khan under an act drafted as per the Shariat. I have faith in the judicial system and will not live with my ex-husband by buckling under any pressure,” she said, asserting that her second marriage was solemnised by a qazi according to Islamic customs and in the presence of well-known people.

When contacted, the Muslim personal law board distanced itself from the fatwa. Kamal Farooqui, a board member, said: “Such a pronouncement is improper. The question that needs to be answered is whether the divorce took place as per Muslim law or not. As long as the magistrate or judge passed the order as per Muslim personal law, there should be no objection to it.”

Lucknow-based Naim-ur-Rahman Siddiqui Nadvi echoed similar sentiments. “There are several courts at various levels where non-Muslim judges make pronouncements relating to the Shariat. The key issue is whether her divorce proceedings were executed properly or not.”

Arjumand today filed a “contempt of court” petition against Anwar.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has joined the row, with general secretary Praveen Togadia condemning the cleric and demanding stern action against him.

The vice-president of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee’s minority cell, Akthar Baig, also condemned the cleric and demanded measures to check the growing fatwa menace.

Baig said the qazi was perhaps not aware that a recent Supreme Court judge of the “Islamic Republic of Pakistan” was a Hindu. “So there is no wisdom in saying that only a Muslim can interpret Shariat law. What he should have said was that only those who understand Islamic law should make a pronouncement.”

The cleric has gone underground.