AIMPLB to move court to defend personal laws

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) plans to move an intervening application in the Supreme Court to defend the practice of polygamy and temporary marriage contracts, which the board says are part of Islamic law.

“I have not seen the apex court’s order as yet. The AIMPLB is already a party in the triple ‘talaq’ case. But if the SC has issued the notice on a fresh application then we will move intervening application soon,” said Board’s secretary and lawyer Zafaryab Jilani. Five months after it termed instant triple divorce illegal, the SC on Monday issued notice to the Centre and said a Constitution bench would test the legality of pratice of polygamy and Nikah Halala and Mutah (temporary marriages).

“It is strange that live-in relationships are perfectly legal, but objections are being raised on polygamy, which is an integral part of the Muslim Personal Law,” says Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahli, another AIMPLB member.

The cleric said the Indian Constitution guarantees minority communities to follow their own personal laws, but even then their validity was being challenged.

“There is great concern and anxiety among the Muslims in the manner in which facts are being twisted and people are misrepresenting ‘shariat’ laws in the court,” he said.

“The petitioners are portraying the concept of Nikah Halala in a way which is non-existent in Islam,” he said. The cleric, however, clarified that he supported the contention of the petitioners where rackets were being run and women were used for marriages and quick divorce in the name of Halala or Mutah. “Such marriages do not have religious sanction and are not part of Islamic practice,” he pointed out.

Supporting the SC move, Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi, however, said: “Some ‘maulanas’ (clerics) were using ‘halala’ to exploit Muslim women. Under Islamic laws, a Muslim man has the liberty to divorce and remarry the same woman twice. However, if he decides to dissolve the marriage for the third time, he can only remarry the same woman if she first marries another man, consummates the marriage and only if the man dies or willingly asks for divorce, can the woman go back to her first husband and remarry him.” The Shia Waqf Board chief said though ‘Halala’ was meant to discourage divorces, some ‘maulanas’ were misusing it.

“It (Halala) is an oppressive custom which leads to physical and mental exploitation of Muslim women,” he said in a statement issued here on Tuesday. Rizvi said the custom should be declared a criminal activity under Indian Penal Code as it was against Islam also. “Marriage with the intention of divorce is illegal in Islam,” he said, adding the custom under which a man marries a woman with intention of divorce cannot be called Islamic. Islam never allows such exploitation of Muslim women, he said.