The landmark Shah Bano case, which recently found a new voice in the Yami Gautam and Emraan Hashmi starrer courtroom drama Haq, continues to reveal startling political details decades after the historic Supreme Court verdict. In a revelation that adds another layer to this complex legal and social saga, Shah Bano's youngest son has claimed that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi personally asked his mother to refuse the maintenance she had fought years to secure.
The Cinematic Inspiration and the Real-Life Drama
Suparn Verma’s film Haq, which garnered a decent opening weekend of Rs 9 crore at the domestic box office, features Yami Gautam as Shazia Bano, a character whose struggles were inspired by the real-life Shah Bano. While the film depicts a personal legal battle, it was the aftermath of the actual 1985 Supreme Court verdict that created political shockwaves across the nation.
The real Shah Bano was a resident of Indore who filed a lawsuit in a local court seeking maintenance from her lawyer-husband, Mohammad Ahmed Khan, after he divorced her in 1978. After a lengthy legal battle that stretched over seven years, a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court upheld her right to maintenance in a landmark 1985 judgment, ruling that Muslim women were entitled to maintenance under the law, just like women from other communities.
A Son's Account of Family Strife and Political Pressure
In a 2017 interview with The Quint, Shah Bano's youngest son, Jameel Ahmad, then 75 years old, provided intimate details about the family conflict that led to the legal battle. He revealed that his father's second wife, who was 14 years younger than Khan, created endless domestic conflicts. "Both the ladies used to fight endlessly over trivial issues. That was the reason why my father decided to divorce my mother," Ahmad recounted.
The divorce took a severe toll on Shah Bano, who was 60 years old at the time. Ahmad described how his mother developed high blood pressure and frequently fell ill due to the stress. "My mother fought for self-respect. My father was very unfair to us," he said, adding that despite his father's financial comfort, he hardly cared for his children from his first marriage.
The family faced significant pressure and threats during their legal fight. Ahmad claimed that many people offered him and his siblings jobs and money to refuse the maintenance, but they refused to relent. The situation became so tense that a rally was held next to their home in Indore, threatening the family.
The Political Intervention and Its Consequences
The most startling revelation from Ahmad concerns the intervention of the then Prime Minister. He recalled how Rajiv Gandhi invited Shah Bano to New Delhi, and he accompanied his mother to the meeting. "Rajiv ji said that the situation was very critical. He asked us to refuse the maintenance. He spent around 15 minutes with us," Ahmad revealed.
Following widespread protests by Muslim organisations against the Supreme Court verdict, the Rajiv Gandhi government enacted the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act in 1986. This legislation effectively nullified the Supreme Court's decision in the Shah Bano case, limiting the maintenance period for divorced Muslim women to only the iddat period (roughly three months).
While Haq captures the personal struggle of a woman fighting for her rights within the legal system, the real Shah Bano case remains a pivotal moment in India's legal history, highlighting the complex intersection of gender justice, personal law, and political considerations that continues to resonate in contemporary discourse about uniform civil code and women's rights.
