Shah-Bano-eng

Shah Bano, MW Act, and Mataa
fixed by them as the maintenance per month. Nether of the parties
adduced any evidence upon which amount monthly maintenance can
be determined and fixed. Nevertheless we are not precluded from
determining the amount. It is in the record that the petitioner is a
typist in the Ministry of Finance. Neither in his deposition nor in his
written statement the petitioner, we find, refuted the claim of
maintenance at Taka 1,000.00 per month for each of the opposite
parties as made in the plaint. We can, under the circumstances, call in
aid of our personal knowledge. We, therefore, hold that each of the
opposite parties is entitled to get from the petitioner an amount of
Taka 1,000.00 per month as maintenance commensurate with the
status and means of the petitioner. We further hold that the learned
District Judge acted illegally in reducing the amount abruptly without
assigning any reason whatsoever.
7. Now we address ourselves to a suo motu legal query as to
whether the first opposite party could have claimed maintenance
beyond the period of iddat. The relevant materials are as hereunder:
Those of you who die and leave widows should bequeath for their
widows a year’s maintenance and residence; but if they leave (the
residence), there is no blame on you for what they do with themselves.
Provided it is reasonable. And God is Exalted in Power, Wise.
For divorced women maintenance (should be provided) on a reasonable
(scale). This is a duty on the righteous.
Thus doth God make clear His Signs to you, in order that ye may
understand.
Quran, Second Sura Baqara, verses 240-242. (These and the other
verses to be quoted subsequently are quoted from The Holy Quran:
Text, Translation & Commentary by Abdullah Yusuf Ali.)
Where a man divorces his wife, her subsistence and lodging are
incumbent upon him during the term of her edit .... Maintenance is not
due to a woman after her husband’s decease . . . .
Hedaya, translated by Charles Hamilton, Book IV, Chapter XV,
Section 3, p. 145.
A woman revocably repudiated is entitled to maintenance, clothing, and
a place to reside in during her iddat, day by day . . . . It would seem,
however, that after the death of her husband she has no right to a
residence except in the single case of her being pregnant.
Digest of Mohammudan Law (compiled and translated from
authorities in the original Arabic) by Neil B.E. Baillie, Part Second,
Book II, Chapter VII, Section Sixth, pp. 169-170.
8. Quran is the text book of Islam. It is the Words of God revealed
to the last Prophet Mohammad (peace be on him) in Arabic language
from time to time during the period of twenty-three years of his last
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