The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has expressed reservations over certain aspects of the Allahabad High Court’s latest observations on triple talaq even as it downplayed its significance.
The AIMPLB on Friday said the HC’s comments on the practice of triple talaq were “unrequired” and “to some extent, against the observations of the Supreme Court.” In an order dated November 5 but only reported on Thursday, a single bench of Justice Suneet Kumar termed triple talaq “cruel”and “the most demeaning form of divorce practised by the Muslim community. ”Justice Kumar also remarked that “personal laws, of any community, cannot claim supremacy over the rights granted to the individuals by the Constitution.”
Referring to this specific observation, the AIMPLB said the court seems to have not considered previous Supreme Court judgments. “The matter raised in the observation has been considered in the SC several times, and the SC has said it will not test personal laws on the anvil of fundamental rights. The learned judge has not considered the SC judgement or the Madhu Kishwar or Mathura Ahir cases... there are four such cases,” said senior advocate and AIMPLB secretary Zafaryab Jilani. Playing down the HC’s remarks as “the personal views of a particular judge,” the AIMPLB said, “There is no need to challenge it in any court of law” as it would not impact the ongoing triple talaq case in the SC, the parties or the Muslim community.
“The court’s observations are what we refer to in legal terms as obiter dicta , which has no concern with the merit of the case or question. The court has itself said the matter (of triple talaq) is pending in the Supreme Court. What the SC orders will be followed,” Mr. Jilani said. The HC had also said the “arbitrary” and “unilateral” use of triple talaq by Muslim husbands was not in sync with Islamic laws, and it was a “popular fallacy that a Muslim man enjoys, under the Quranic Law, unbridled authority to liquidate the marriage.”
Responding to this, Mr. Jilani said: “If he means to say that divorce requires consent of wife, he is mistaken. That is not the law or the Quran. He has misunderstood the Quran. There is no requirement of consent.”
Asked what the AIMPLB’s position was on solving the issue of triple talaq, Mr. Jilani said: “We have always taken the stand that the law should remain. In some circumstances, it is required to provide freedom to the woman, it is in her interest. It should, however, not be ordinarily invoked as it is done. If it is not applied properly or in the right cases, the remedy should be punishment. We have submitted this in writing before the SC.”
Meanwhile, the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board “welcomed” the HC’s observations, saying it should serve as a “mirror” to the “arrogant” AIMPLB. “The court’s contention that triple talaq has no place in Quranic law will help the idea that Muslim women can get justice on the basis of the laws of the Shariat or the Quran,” AIMWPLB president Shaista Ambar said.
