Supreme Court on 'nikah halala', polygamy plea: new 5-judge bench to hear PIL on Muslim practices

The Supreme Court on 20 January 2023 said that it will set up a new 5-judge bench to hear petitions against Muslim practices of polygamy and 'nikah halala'.

The court took note of submissions by one of the petitioners that two judges of the previous bench - Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Hemant Gupta - had retired, and so a new constitution bench was needed.

Lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay has filed a PIL seeking declaration of polygamy and 'nikah halala' as unconstitutional and illegal.

While polygamy allows a Muslim man to have four wives, 'nikah halala' deals with the process in which a Muslim woman, who wants to re-marry her husband after divorce, has to first marry another person and get a divorce from him after the consummation.

The apex court had in July 2018 considered the plea and referred the matter to a Constitution bench already tasked with hearing a batch of similar petitions.

(With PTI inputs)

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