SC judgment on fatwas needs to be seen closely

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Too much hot air is being blown into Monday’s Supreme Court judgment clarifying that fatwas are not binding on Muslims. That’s possibly because there’s a new government in New Delhi that is led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and some people have a morbid tendency of contextualising issues. In fact, if anyone contextualised anything, it was the Supreme Court.

The court ruled that fatwas are not illegal, but are also not legally binding on those against whom they are made. It was hardly a...