July 2, 2018On Monday, the Apex Court agreed to consider listing of a batch of petitions challenging the practices of polygamy & ‘nikah halala’ among Muslims.
A bench comprising CJI Dipak Misra & Justice AM Khanwilkar & Justice DY Chandrachud considered the submissions of Sr. Adv. V Shekhar that the petitions be listed before a 5-Judge constitution bench for the final adjudication.
“We'll look into it,” the bench said.
Sr. Adv. Shekhar & lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, appearing for one of the Delhi-based petitioners Sameena Begum, alleged that she was threatened & asked to withdraw her petition challenging ‘nikah halala’ & polygamy among Muslims.
The bench, meanwhile, allowed ASG Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, to file a response to the petition.
Nikah-halala is a practice intended to curb the incidence of divorce under which a man can't remarry his former wife without her having to go through the process of marrying some other man, then consummating it, thereafter getting divorced & observing a separation period called ‘Iddat’ before coming back to him.
The petition, filed by the Delhi-based woman, has said that by virtue of the Muslim Personal Law & Section 494 of the IPC under which marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife was rendered inapplicable to Muslims & no married woman from the community has the avenue of filing a complaint against her husband for the offence of bigamy.
Source HT
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