Another instance of falsely liberating an agunah from her state by a beis din that annulled the kiddushin retroactively through an afkinhu, something which is totally forbidden in these times per the ruling of our Torah leadership of current and past generations, raised a storm of acerbic protest in the world of Halacha and dayonus.
A sharp protest was publicized in Yated Ne'eman in the wake of a severe breach made by a private beis din in which an agunah was attempted to be released from her state through the falsely applied, so called loophole of afkinhu.
Dayan HaRav Sherman testified that HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliashiv ruled about such a dayan abroad who used this scheme that, as a result of the action on his part, the conversions which he made in the past are absolutely null and void and that those converts must undergo the conversion process anew.
Following the repetition of this grave act in an additional case of misapplying that halachic rule, HaRav Yehuda Silman, Raavad of the Bnei Brak Beis Din, said to Yated Ne'eman, "This act is not a new invention. It is discussed by many of the Acharonim, all of whom unanimously maintain that it is altogether forbidden. When someone who calls himself a dayan and allows himself to use this maneuver, something which HaRav Akiva Eiger himself was afraid to do, it is a tremendous chutzpah and arrogance which goes to show that he does not embody the tradition of halachic ruling and is not fit to judge halachically."
