The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Monday told the Supreme Court that the court had no jurisdiction to hear petition challenging the practices of triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy.
The Board said the validity of Mohammedan Law, founded essentially on the Koran and sources based on it, could not be tested on the particular provisions of the Constitution.
The Muslim body called for judicial restraint as the issues in the petitions before the court fell within the legislative domain.
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‘Misconceived pleas’
The AIMPLB said the petitions, filed by a plethora of Muslim women against the practices, were misconceived.
“The preamble of the Constitution clearly enshrines values of liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship,” the AIMPLB argued in an affidavit filed before the court.
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The government had earlier opposed the AIMPLB stand in court that triple talaq was intended to save the family from delayed justice in conventional courts and to avoid mud-slinging in public.
The Board had contended that concern and sympathy for women lay at the core of polygamy. That it was a better option for a “barren” wife to allow her husband to marry a second time than let him indulge in a “mistress”.
The Centre had countered that in a secular democracy, any practice which left women socially, financially or emotionally vulnerable or subject to the whims and caprice of men folk was incompatible with the letter and spirit of Articles 14 and 15.”