New Delhi: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board on Friday justified the Supreme Court the ‘triple talaq’ form of divorce and cautioned the apex court against interfering with personal laws in the guise of social reform and bringing in the Uniform Civil Code.
In its counter-affidavit to a batch of petitions challenging the legal validity of ‘triple talaq’, the Board said all three utterances of triple talaq were effective and validly terminated the marriage. This was accepted by all the four schools of jurisprudence, namely Hanafi, Shafai, Maliki, and Hanbali, it said.
The Board said social reform and welfare had to be brought in gradually, keeping in view if the community in relation to which such reform was proposed is ready for the reform in question. It noted that Article 44 of the Constitution, which envisaged a Uniform Civil Code, was only a Directive Principle and not enforceable.
AIMPLB says Triple talaq valid
This Article by necessary implication recognised the existence of different codes applicable to different religions in matters of personal law and permitted their continuance until the State succeeded in its endeavour to secure for all citizens a Uniform Civil Code. The framers of the Constitution were fully conscious of the difficulties in enforcing a UCC and thus deliberately refrained from enforcing them, the Board said. The Board said that though pronouncement of triple talaq was considered to be a sin it was still a valid and effective form of divorce. In Islamic jurisprudence, irregular or improper nature of an act did not affect the legal consequences of the act, it said. Though triple talaq was the least appreciated form of terminating a marriage, it was effective and in line with the Shariat law.
The Board said it facilitated the couple to divorce irrevocably and without elongating the procedure of separation. To presume that each triple talaq was arbitrary and unreasonable was a fallacy of reason. The Shariat law intended to keep the painful process of separation/ divorce private in order to protect the dignity of either party and to avoid mudslinging in public, it said. It also protected the interest of the parties to move on without much bitterness and hatred towards each other.
Asking the court not to interfere with the freedom of religion, the Board said the issues raised in the petitions had already been decided by the court and need not be re-opened again. It said all the sources of Muslim Personal law had been approved and endorsed by the Quran and the practices of marriage, divorce and maintenance were based on such sources which flowed from the Holy Quran itself.
