In the past two years of litigation over the legality of instant triple talaq, the Supreme Court has seen a climbdown in the position of Muslim bodies, from declaring that the practice helps estranged couples to “move on” effortlessly to filing finally an affidavit that Muslim men who resort to instant talaq will be socially boycotted.
In September 2016, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) argued that the Shariat permitted instant talaq in the interest of both the man and woman as a means to keep their dignity and privacy intact.
The intention is to save the family from delayed justice in conventional courts and to avoid mud-slinging in public.
“To presume that each triple talaq is arbitrary and unreasonable is a fallacy of reason ... it is a misconception that triple talaq is always a result of haste and is a power which is freely misused by a Muslim male,” the Board had told the court.
It had justified that there were “innumerable instances where a Muslim wife seeks dissolution of marriage and approaches her husband seeking immediate dissolution by resorting to triple talaq”.
Judicial legislation
The Board had argued that a religion cannot be “reformed” out of its existence or identity. It had accused the Supreme Court of trying to indulge in judicial legislation in the name of “socially reforming” Islamic practices of marriage and divorce.
Getting rid of the “peculiarities” of Islamic personal law will be akin to enforcing the Uniform Civil Code by judicial process, Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, a prominent Islamic organisation, had told the Supreme Court.
However, one of the judges on the Constitution Bench, Justice Kurian Joseph, towards the end of the hearing, had suggested whether Muslim brides can be armed with a right to forbid instant talaq in the nikah namah .
However, the AIMPLB, on the last day of the hearing, conveyed its resolution to boycott Muslims who pronounced divorce in one go. “This social will be much helpful in decreasing the incidents of divorce,” the AIMPLB had assured the court.
