1.

Introduction
The Family Court Ordinance was promulgated on March 1982 to resolve legal disputes related to
the dissolution of marriage, restitution of conjugal relation, dower, maintenance, and guardianship
and custody of children. The Ordinance provides the Family Court with exclusive jurisdiction for
expeditious settlement and disposal of disputes in suits relating to dissolution of marriage,
restitution of conjugal rights, dower, maintenance, guardianship, and custody of children. The
Ordinance has exclusive absolute jurisdiction all over Bangladesh except in the hill tract districts
of Rangamati, Bandarban, and Khagrachhari. Soon after the promulgation of the Ordinance, and
establishment of Family Courts, questions were raised about whether the Family Courts would
deal only with the family matters of Muslim communities only or of all communities. Though the
uncertainty regarding the jurisdiction of the Ordinance lasted for quite some time, the High Court
Division decided to resolve the issue once and for all.
2. Applicability of the Family Court Ordinance
As mentioned earlier, the question regarding the applicability of the Family Court Ordinance was
raised numerous times after the Family Court began its functioning. The problem became more
prominent after some controversial judgments of the court, where the question regarding the status
of the Ordinance as a Muslim-only legislature or not come into view. For example, in Krishnapada
Talukder vs. Geetasree Talukder1 case, the question as to whether a woman, Hindu by faith, could
file a suit in a Family Court for maintenance against her husband. The honorable judge of the High
Court Division held that “As per the provisions of the present Ordinance, all the sections of the
27-section statute have been made available for the litigants who are Muslim by faith only.”
However, to make the scenario more clouded, only a few days after the passing of the said
judgment, the High Court Division in another case expressed a diametrically opposite view. In the
case of Nirmal Kanti Das vs. Sreemati Biva Rani2 when the same question concerning the same
question of applicability of the Ordinance outside the Muslim community was made before the
Court, the Court after closely studying the Ordinance asserted that the Ordinance has jurisdiction
to try suits of its subject-matter regardless of the religions of the litigants. The Court connoted that,
“A close reading of S. 1(2) of the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance. 1961, does not at
all indicate that a Suit for maintenance by a Hindu wife against her husband is not
maintainable under the Ordinance. 1985. Subsection (2) of S. 1 of the Muslim Family
Laws Ordinance, 1961, applies to all sects of Muslims, Sunni, Shia, etc. So, the
Ordinance does apply to a person professing faith other than Islam. It is too late in a
day to raise such question of the ouster of Jurisdiction of a Court when the Law does
not make such provision in the enactment itself by explicit language and this cannot
be held on examining the language by intendment.”
Furthermore, the Court referring to section 3 of the Ordinance held that the provisions of the Family Courts
Ordinance shall have effect notwithstanding anything contained in ‘any other laws for the time being in
force. From the expression ‘other laws’, it appears that the Family Court Ordinance controls the Muslim

1
14 (1994) BLD 415
2
1994 14 BLD HIGH COURT DIVISION 413
Family Laws Ordinance, 1961, and not vice versa. Thus, any person professing any faith has a right to bring
a suit for settlement and disposal of disputes relating to dissolution of marriage, restitution of conjugal
rights, dower, maintenance, guardianship, and custody of children. And so, a Hindu wife is entitled to bring
a suit for maintenance against her husband in a Family Court. The Court further elucidated that,

“……the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, 1961, is applicable only to the Muslim
citizens of Bangladesh who profess Islam as their faith and is a discriminating Law
which does not apply 10 Bangladeshi citizens of other religions, But no such limited
jurisdiction is given to the Court under The Family Courts Ordinance, 1985 and no
discrimination has been made in this Ordinance on the basis of faith for dealing with
the matters falling under S. 5 of that Ordinance. Application of the Muslim Family
Laws Ordinance, 1961, is ousted by S. 3 of the Family Courts Ordinance, 1985, in
clear language which speaks that the provisions of this Ordinance shall have effect
notwithstanding anything contained in any other Law. It, thus, seems to me, this Law
is more in accord with the equality clause of our Constitution.”
In the case of Meher Nigar vs. Md Mujibur Rahman3 the same view was corroborated by the High Court
Division. In this case, the Court was of opinion that, the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961 introduced
some changes in the orthodox Muslim personal laws relating to polygamy, talaq, and inheritance and in
order to keep those reformative provisions of the Ordinance of 1961 effective it has been provided that the
provisions of Muslim Family Laws Ordinance of 1961 shall not be affected by the provisions of the Family
Courts Ordinance of 1985; and section 23 of the Family Courts have specified the area not to be affected.
It otherwise indicates that the provisions of the Family Courts Ordinance are applicable to other
communities which constitute the populace of Bangladesh.
Nevertheless, the confusion regarding the applicability of the Ordinance was not completely clear out till
1997. In 1997 a larger bench of the High Court Division delivered the landmark judgment which cleared
out the confusion once and for all. In Pochon Rikssi Das vs. Khuku Rani Dasi and others,4 the court held
that the Family Court Ordinance has not taken away any personal right of any litigant of any faith. It has
just provided the forum for the enforcement of some of the rights as is evident from section 4 of the
Ordinance, which provides that there shall be as many Family Courts as there are Courts of Assistant Judge
and the latter courts shall be the Family Courts for the purpose of this Ordinance. Moreover, the court also
declared that the Family Courts Ordinance applies to all citizens irrespective of religion.
At the end of the day, it is clear that the Family Court Ordinance, 1985, is not a Muslim-only legislature.
This particular piece of legislation was created for all religious communities out there in Bangladesh, except
for the hill tracts districts, which the Ordinance mentioned specifically. The Ordinance was created to
resolve family issues of all religious communities of Bangladesh. The decisions of the Higher Courts of the
Country had made it clear by their judgment on numerous occasions.
3. Conclusion
Bangladesh is a country where people following various religions are living peacefully together. Family is
an important part of every citizen of the country and is solely based on the personal beliefs of a person. So,
a codified legislation to solve family-related issues for all the citizens of Bangladesh was much necessary

3
14 (1994) BLD (HCD) 467
4
3MLR1998(HCD)145
and would make it simple for a country with multiple personal laws. Keeping this in mind the Parliament
passed the Family Court Ordinance. As such the Ordinance is applicable to all the religions in Bangladesh.

End