An influential group of Indian Muslims is campaigning to stop men from divorcing their wives by simply saying the word "talaq", or divorce, three times.

Separate civil laws govern marriage and divorce for the 120 million Muslims in India.

Efforts by bodies such as the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), which is made up of Islamic community leaders, have sway over India's Muslims but no authority.

The board decided on Sunday to prescribe a model format of marriage certificates to prevent the "triple talaq" divorce that has drawn criticism from women's groups that call for use of common civil laws.

"We wish to educate the common masses and to explain to them the implications of decisions taken in haste," Zafaryab Jilani, a lawyer for the Muslim board, said. "We have resolved that every 'nikahnama' (marriage decree) should have an attachment prescribing alternative ways of divorce as laid down in the Shariat," Syed Nizamuddin, general secretary of the AIMPLB said in Kanpur.

The board said religious courts run by qazis, or community judges, could provide a way out for couples involved in disputes.

"The best way suggested by us was to go for a mutually agreed arbitrator or to approach the Qazi court," Nizamuddin said.

The decision taken by AIMPLB has been welcomed by the Muslim community in Mumbai.

"From now on we intend to educate Muslims across the country to refrain from the triple talaq system in one sitting," Abdussattar Yousuf Sheikh, general secretary, AIMPLB, said.

An earlier report in a national English daily that the AIMPLB was planning to ban this practice brought forth a wave of opposition from Muslims in the city.

Sheikh says: "It was a mischievous report since it pointed out to a ban though the Board's intention was to discourage the misuse of this system. The Board has no right to ban or change Islamic rules. We only want to change ourselves."

Muslim divorces have been a controversial issue in India. A case in the mid-1980s involving Shah Bano, who took her rejected demand for alimony to the Supreme Court, triggered debate across India on whether the court had jurisdiction over Muslim personal laws.

The court's verdict upholding her right to alimony was later reversed by a law pushed through by the government of the day, run by the Congress party, setting off protests by opposition nationalists.