Will Refer Pleas Against Polygamy To Constitution Bench, Waiting For Centre To File Reply: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court said today that pleas challenging polygamy among Muslims will be referred to a Constitution bench after the centre files a reply reported The Times of India. It also agreed for urging listing of petitions challenging polygamy and ‘nikah halala’.

‘Nikah halala’ is a practice which forbids divorced couple to remarry until the woman marries someone else and consulates her new marriage and gets divorced.

The counsel for the Muslim woman petitioner, Shamima Begum told the court that she is being threatened by her parents-in-law to withdraw the plea or be thrown out of her matrimonial house, stated the report.

The union government seems to be with the petitioners.

The Supreme Court is said to have directed the union government to respond to the pleas seeking to declare various provisions of Muslim Personal Law which validate practices of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ unconstitutional.

Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) has decided to support the petitioners. Earlier, the organisation had successfully petitioned the Supreme Court against instant triple talaq.

"We are seeking a comprehensive law regulating all aspects of marriage and family by a Quranic-based law that complies with the Constitution too. We want halala to be a criminal offence and polygamy to be illegal. We believe the Quran doesn't permit polygamy in today's context. We are seeking legal protection like that for Hindu and Christian women" said Zakia Soman of BMMA as per the report.