It is unanimously agreed among Muslim scholars and jurists that the woman’s right to maintenance arises upon marriage and that the wife is first in order of priority to this entitlement, even before the children, parents and relatives. What is not so readily agreed upon however, is whether this right is extendable after the marriage ends. It is the contention of a good number of exponents of Islamic law all over the world that it should be. In the Indian legal system of Muslim Personal Law we see that there are many judgments of the Supreme Court regarding maintenance. Prior to 1985 the situation regarding Muslim Divorced woman getting maintenance was different. The question as to whether Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure applies to Muslims also was concluded by two decisions of this Court in Bai Tahira v. Ali Hussein Fidaalli Chothia, AIR 1979 SC 362 : 1979 Cri LJ 151 and Fuzlunbi v. K. Khader Vali AIR 1980 SC 1730 : 1980 Cri LJ 1249. Those decisions took ....