Muslim lawyer asks Apex Court to scrap AIMPLB allegeing it promotes radicalism

NEW DELHI: After All India Muslim Personal Law Board's ( AIMPLB) justification of triple talaq with the contention in the Supreme Court that men are better at controlling emotions, a woman lawyer has sought abolition of the body for propagating Islamophobia and to save Indian Muslims from the clamp of fundamentalists.

Advocate Farha Faiz, who is fighting for gender equality among Muslims and is the most vocal among lawyers fighting for scrapping of triple talaq, told the apex court that its is because of organisations like AIMPLB that "Muslims always face a dilemma whether religion is above the country" and pleaded for a ban on Sharia courts.

"They never preach in favour of the nation or motherland. They always create Islamophobia in the minds of the people. For example, Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband never takes direct financial assistance from its own government while it accepts millions of rupees from all over the world," she said in an affidavit.

She was countering the Board's stand that triple talaq is part of Islamic religious practice protected by fundamental right to religion and that the SC was barred from adjudicating its validity.

"There should be a complete ban on Sharia courts which run a parallel judiciary . These registered societies do not accept the fact that in this county there is well developed judicial system. Nobody can run a parallel judicial system in the name of religion," Faiz said.

"This raises a question mark on the dignity of the judiciary and it is an open challenge to the government," she added.

She said that clerics and so called Muslim organisations misguide Muslims and forcibly push them towards fundamentalism.

"Constitution provides a dignified status to all countrymen without discrimination but Muslim women are facing a critical and insecure life and they are not enjoying their rights," she said.

The SC bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice DY Chandrachud on Monday had granted four weeks time to the Centre to file its reply on a batch of petitions on triple talaq and the plight of Muslim women.