New Delhi, India - India's top court has agreed to hear a challenge to the legality of religious courts after an Islamic tribunal ordered a Muslim rape victim to move in with the alleged rapist - her father-in-law, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the federal government, state governments and three Muslim organizations to file briefs on whether religious courts, primarily Islamic ones, should be allowed to play any role in a secular democracy, the Hindustan Times newspaper said.
Under India's constitution, Islamic courts are permitted to rule on personal matters for Muslims, such as marriage and divorce.
A council in a Muslim village in northern India used that power in June to order a rape victim to move in with her father-in-law, who is accused of attacking her. She was also ordered to treat her husband as her son, effectively becoming her father-in-law's wife.
The council was backed up by the Dar-ul-Uloom, one of South Asia's most influential Islamic theological schools, which issued a decree saying the woman, a mother of five children, was prohibited from living with her husband under Islamic law, known as Sharia.
But it stopped short of ordering her to become her father-in-law's wife.
Regardless, the woman refused to abide by either council's decision, and her father-in-law was arrested by police after human rights groups protested the rulings.
She is now living with her brother in a town north of New Delhi.
The case has pitted conservative Muslims against Hindu nationalists and womans' groups in India, where Muslims account for about 130 million of the country's 1 billion people.
The petition challenging the legality of religious courts was filed a Hindu lawyer, Vishwa Lochan Madan.
While there are tribal courts in other parts of India, it was not clear if they were covered by the suit.