Haq, starring Emraan Hashmi and Yami Gautam, releases on November 7, 2025
The movie is inspired by the landmark 1985 Shah Bano case that ignited national debates on gender justice
The Madhya Pradesh High Court dismissed Shah Bano’s daughter Siddiqua Begum Khan’s plea to stop Haq’s release.
The courtroom drama Haq, starring Emraan Hashmi and Yami Gautam, releases in theatres across India on November 7, 2025. Directed by Suparn S. Varma, the film draws inspiration from one of India’s most significant legal battles — the 1985 Shah Bano case, which sparked a nationwide debate on gender justice, personal laws, and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
In 1985, Shah Bano Begum, a 62-year-old Muslim woman from Indore, filed a petition under Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) seeking maintenance after being divorced by her husband, Mohammad Ahmed Khan, a well-off lawyer. The law allows divorced women of any faith to claim financial support from their former husbands if they are unable to sustain themselves.
Khan contested her claim, arguing that Muslim Personal Law limited his responsibility to the short iddat period after divorce. Backed by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, he maintained that secular courts had no jurisdiction over matters governed by the Shariat Application Act, 1937.
After seven years of litigation, the Supreme Court of India ruled in Shah Bano’s favour, declaring that secular law overrides personal law in matters of maintenance. The Court held that a divorced Muslim woman unable to support herself is entitled to maintenance beyond the iddat period, about three months after divorce, and that mahr cannot substitute for post-divorce maintenance.
The verdict was hailed as a landmark for women’s rights and renewed calls for a Uniform Civil Code to ensure equality among citizens.
While reformists celebrated the judgment, it triggered a strong backlash from conservative groups, who saw it as interference in Sharia law. Under political pressure, the government enacted the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, limiting maintenance to the iddat period and shifting long-term responsibility to the woman’s relatives or the Waqf Board.
The move was widely criticized by women’s rights advocates as a regressive step. Shah Bano, disheartened by the controversy, later withdrew from public life and passed away in 1992. Her son, Jameel Ahmed Khan, described her legal fight as “a struggle for self-respect.”
Nearly four decades later, Shah Bano’s story has re-emerged through cinema. Her daughter, Siddiqua Begum Khan, filed a petition in the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking to stop Haq’s release, alleging that it distorted facts and used her mother’s story without the family’s consent.
However, on November 4, 2025, Justice Pranay Verma of the Indore Bench dismissed the plea, ruling that a person’s right to privacy and reputation ends upon death and cannot be inherited.
“Privacy or reputation earned during one’s lifetime extinguishes with death. It cannot be inherited like movable or immovable property,” the court observed.
The High Court accepted the filmmakers’ position that Haq is a fictionalized adaptation inspired by the 1985 Supreme Court judgment, not a biographical account. The court also noted that the film includes a disclaimer clarifying it as a dramatized work based on public records.
The bench further observed that the petitioner had alternative remedies, such as approaching the Central Government to suspend the CBFC certificate, and criticized the timing of the petition — filed just days before release — as “not the conduct of a vigilant litigant.”
Director Suparn S. Varma describes Haq as a story that captures justice, equality, and human dignity through fiction. The protagonist, Shazia (played by Yami Gautam), challenges social and religious boundaries to assert her constitutional rights.
Emraan Hashmi portrays Abbas, Shazia’s husband and courtroom rival. Speaking about the film, Hashmi said Haq is balanced and unbiased, noting that it “does not point fingers at any community” but highlights that justice and constitutional values apply equally to all citizens.
With the court’s green light, Haq will release nationwide on November 7, 2025, reigniting public discourse on the landmark Shah Bano case — a defining moment at the crossroads of law, religion, and gender rights in India. [VP]
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