Srinagar: Alleging that the Muslim Personal Law Board (MPLB) has failed failed to give its decisive verdict on the question of triple talak in one utterance, senior Congress leader Prof Saifuddin Soz said with the result the ball passed on to Supreme Court and then to the RSS-BJP government at the centre.
“I feel very sad that the Muslim Personal Law Board failed to give its decisive verdict on the question of ‘Triple Divorce in One Utterance’ during the last, say, more than 25 years, with the result that the ball passed on to the Supreme Court and, then to the RSS-BJP Govt. at the Centre, former union minister said in a statement here on Friday afternoon.
He said it is a sad commentary on the Board’s working that it saw, all these years, many helpless Muslim women fighting miserably the criminality of their husbands and the Board failed to help them in any manner. These tormented Muslim women had to go before the Judiciary to seek justice even when they had no resources.
Prof Soz said all that the MPLB did was to produce for its members and the limited area of its influence a ‘Nikkah Nama’ as if it was a Panacea for this crucial problem!
He said “I have made it clear earlier that the Board doesn’t have a representative character and it is extremely inward looking and sluggish in interpreting Islamic Laws, correctly and timely”.
The Congress leader said it is so tragic that the Board didn’t take any notice of the fact that 25 Islamic countries of the world including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Malaysia have already rejected ‘Triple Divorce in one utterance’ as un-Islamic!
“The simplest course open to the Board was to pinpoint that Talaq Ahsan–i.e. divorce uttered three times in three months, happens to be the best course acceptable as per the extant Islamic Jurisprudence”. I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to the Muslim Majlis-e-Mashawarat, Jamat-e-Islami Hind, Jamiat-ul-Ulmai-e-Hind, the Institute of Objective Studies and Islamic Fiqa Academy to jointly do an exercise and set up a Committee or Board to deal with such issues as a safeguard for the Muslim Personal Laws, in future”, he said.
“I wonder with enormous anxiety in my mind on why Islamic Fiqah Academy that drafted Muslim Personal Laws for South Africa, some years ago, on the invitation of Nelson Mendala, can’t sit with above mentioned organizations and set up an institution for safeguard of Muslim personal Laws in India. That will certainly be accepted throughout India”. I would like to emphasize that the RSS-BJP motivation for making a law on Triple Divorce could not have been just for their concern and sympathy for the welfare of Muslim women! Aren’t there problems for Hindu women? What about those problems? It is nakedly a conspiracy of RSS-BJP sangathan against the Muslims and other minorities in India, he alleged.
Prof Soz said “How can Muslim Personal Laws be left to the wisdom of the RSS-BJP dispensation? It is just a situation that AIMPLB has pushed the Indian Muslims into the trap of the RSS-BJP combine.”