ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the implementation of personal status laws in independent Bangladesh. The shifting demography includes four major religious communities - Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian - living in Bangladesh, which follow their religion-based personal status laws. Following independence from Pakistan in 1971, Bangladesh enacted a secular Constitution in 1972, in which equality and equal protection of all citizens, protection against discrimination on religious grounds, and freedom to profess, propagate, and practise religion are guaranteed. Relatedly, application of religious personal status law in the court is mandated subsequently through adopting different legislation passed during the British rule in India, and by the Constitution. In Bangladesh, personal status laws cases are adjudicated by the Family Court - a special civil court accessible to people from all religious communities, with an appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. This chapter suggests that the judicial implementation of personal status laws has failed to secure equal treatment and protection of members of different religious communities (particularly of women) and, thereby, has contributed to violating the equality principle of the Constitution.
