Muslims who resort to instant triple talaq will be socially boycotted by other Muslims, the influential All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) conveyed its resolution to the Supreme Court.
“The Muslim community should boycott such persons socially who has pronounced three divorces in one go, so that such incidents may be minimised… This social boycott will be much helpful in decreasing the incidents of divorce,” the AIMPLB decided in a resolution, a copy of which was filed on record in the Supreme Court.
The resolution of the AIMPLB is part of an affidavit filed by the Board in the Supreme Court on Monday.
The AIMPLB’s latest affidavit follows back-to-back hearings held before a five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar on whether instant talaq violated the dignity of Muslim women. The court had last week reserved the judgment. In court, AIMPLB, through senior advocate Kapil Sibal, had submitted that courts and parliament have no jurisdiction over Muslim personal law practices and the community would reform by itself without outside intervention.
The resolution was arrived at during a working committee meeting of the AIMPLB in Lucknow in mid-April 2017. This means that the meeting was held almost a month before the Constitution Bench started hearing the triple talaq issue on May 11, 2017. It may be an effort by the Board to show the court that efforts to reform personal law was already underway.
This resolution is also part of a series of codes and guidelines the AIMPLB elders have decided for the community to follow as regards marriage and divorce. The resolution, in no uncertain terms, conclude that instant talaq of wives without no reason and in one go is not “the correct method of divorce” and causes social instability.
Those Muslims who still go ahead to defy the resolution and resort to instant talaq would be ostracised from the community.
“The working committee has decided that those who resort to triple divorce in one go leading to the creation of problems thereafter should be boycotted by Muslims,” the AIMPLB, represented by advocate Ejaz Maqbool, said in the resolution.
The AIMPLB said it would start a “grand public movement for desisting people from pronouncing divorce without any reason and that in case of necessity only one divorce should be resorted to and in any case three divorces in one go should not be resorted to”.
The AIMPLB said it will issue a public advisory using its website, publications and social media platforms to religious functionaries performing the marriage to advise the bridegroom from pronouncing instant talaq if ever a dispute arises in their marital relationship. Further, the Qazi would also advise both the groom and the bride to include a condition in the nikah nama that they would not resort to instant talaq.
It said every effort will be made to convey this message to all the segments of Muslims, especially to the poor population and the help of Imams and orators of the mosques should be called for.
The working committee’s new code of conduct lays emphasis on a layered settlement of disputes between husband and wife through mutual interaction. If the issue is not resolved mutually, then the elder members of both families would intervene. If this too does not work, divorce is resorted to as a final option.
