Rule-making power
(1) The State Government may make rules to carry into effect the purposes of this Act.
(2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing powers, such rules may provide for all or any of the following matters, namely:—
(a) for prescribing the authority before whom and the form in which declaration under this Act shall be made;
(b) for prescribing the fees to be paid for the filing of declarations and for the attendance at private residences of any person in the discharge of his duties under this Act; and for prescribing the times at which such fees shall be payable and the manner in which they shall be levied.
(3) Rules made under the provisions of this section shall be published in the Official Gazette and shall thereupon have effect as if enacted in this Act.
(4) Every rule made by the State Government under this Act shall be laid, as soon as it is made, before the State Legislature.
In plain English
What this section actually means
Section 4 is unusual in vesting the rule-making power in the State Governments rather than the Centre. The reason is constitutional: at the time of enactment (1937), 'Mahomedan Law and Hindu Law' was a Provincial Legislative List subject under the Government of India Act, 1935. Under the present Constitution, personal law sits in the Concurrent List (Entry 5 of List III), but Parliament has not displaced the State rule-making power.
Sub-section (1) is a general power to make rules to carry into effect the purposes of the Act. Sub-section (2) sets out the two specific matters: (a) the authority and form for Section 3 declarations; and (b) fees and times for filing declarations and for attendance at private residences.
Sub-section (3) gives the rules legislative force — they take effect 'as if enacted in this Act' once published in the State Official Gazette.
Sub-section (4) — inserted by Act 20 of 1983 — requires the State Government to lay every rule before the State Legislature, mirroring the parliamentary-control mechanism in most modern Indian statutes.
Real life
What this looks like in real life
State has not notified a prescribed authority
Setup. A Muslim resident of a State that has not, since Independence, notified any prescribed authority under Section 4 wants to file a Section 3 declaration.
What the law does. Without a notified authority, the declaration cannot be filed in the prescribed form. The remedy is either (a) to file a writ of mandamus in the High Court directing the State to notify the authority, or (b) to file the declaration before the District Collector, who is treated by most States as a default prescribed authority.
Frequently asked
Questions about Section 4
Open this section in the source PDF
Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act, 1937.pdf
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