The AIMPLB, in its counter affidavit filed in the apex court, said the contentious issue relating to Muslim practices of polygamy, triple talaq (talaq-e-bidat) and nikah halala are matters of “legislative policy” and cannot be interfered with.
The board said that practices provided by Muslim Personal Law on the issues of marriage, divorce and maintenance were based on holy scripture Al-Quran and “courts cannot supplant its own interpretations over the text of scriptures”.
AIMPLB said the presumption that triple talaq was arbitrary and unreasonable was a “fallacy of reason” and it was a “misconception” that Muslim men enjoyed unilateral powers in respect of divorce.
Regarding polygamy, the board said that though Islam permitted it, but it does not encourage the same and referred to various reports, including World Development Report 1991, which had said that polygamy percentage in tribals, Buddhists and Hindus were 15.25, 7.97 and 5.80 per cent respectively as compared to 5.73 per cent in Muslims.
The board further said that Islam always regarded divorce as a “condemnable practice” and the focus was also on the fact that both parties should maintain the marital bond as far as possible.
“It is clear that Muslim Personal Law adequately provides for the rights of Muslim women and the basis of this petition, which assumes that a Muslim man has right to unilaterally pronounce irrevocable talaq or to not pay any maintenance after iddat period, are myths and thus the present petition is entirely misconceived and deserves to be dismissed,” the board said in its counter affidavit filed in the apex court.
The apex court had also taken suo motu cognizance of the question whether Muslim women faced gender discrimination in cases of divorce or due to other marriages of their husbands and a bench headed by Chief Justice of India T S Thakur is examining the issue.
Subsequently, various other petitions including one by triple talaq victim Shayara Bano were filed challenging the age-old practice of ‘triple talaq’ among the Muslim community.
AIMPLB and Jamiat-e-Ulema had defended triple talaq and said it was part of Quran-dictated personal law which was beyond the ambit of judicial scrutiny. In its counter affidavit, the board said that rights of Muslim women were already protected by virtue of Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 and if the court prescribed other parameters to govern these rights, “it will amount to judicial legislation, which is not permissible”.