A man in India tries to keep his drunken divorce a secret, but local Islamic clerics find out and force the couple to separate.

The clerics in eastern Orissa state ruled the couple can only remarry if the wife takes another husband for one day.

The husband, Ershad, had said the word "talaq" or divorce three times earlier this month. When word spread in their village, clerics ordered them to separate.

District police chief Shatrughan Parida tells Reuters, "The couple had kept it under wraps and continued to stay together but the clerics ruled that since Ershad uttered the word talaq three times, it constituted a divorce."

The clerics ruled the mother of three must marry another man, and then divorce him before she can remarry Ershad.

According to Parida, the clerics also said the temporary husband must be 70-years-old.