ON APRIL 1985, Supreme Court in the landmark judgement of Shah Bano, while recognizing the ethos of egalitarianism declared that a divorced muslim woman would be entitled to receive maintenance from her husband. It was an omnipresent case (as the same issue was judged in the previous cases as well) and yet, it was distinct. The events of the case, the socio-political debates which erupted after the verdict and the publicity that it received altered the communal climate in India. This judgment marks the inception of redressing regressive religious fundamentalist thinking with the instruments of constitutionalism.

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