The Madras HC has come down hard on a ‘shariat council’ at Makka Masjid on Anna Salai for functioning like a court, in settling cases including matrimonial disputes and for conducting unauthorised conciliation programmes.

Agreeing with the submissions of senior counsel A Sirajudeen, the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M Sundar pointed to the alleged orders and a board that was placed at the spot, inside a mosque, where the proceedings were being carried out, as per a Times of India report. 

“The board clearly showed that what is set out is as if the shariat council is a court. In fact, the word `court' is used twice. Thus, the impression which is conveyed to the public at large is of a court functioning,” the court observed.

The bench was issuing further orders based on a PIL filed by Abdur Rahman.

Rahman had earlier filed a plea seeking a direction to the state government, Chennai police commissioner and DGP to implement steps to curb the functioning of the council and other such organisations.

The bench said on Friday, “We have to also take note of the fact that persons visiting the mosque may be from different social status and insofar as the less educated persons may be concerned, or women who are vulnerable, certainly the board would give an impression as if in the nature of a judicial forum, it is working."