SC to arrange recent 5-judge bench to listen to pleas difficult polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ amongst Muslims
6 min readBy PTI
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court mentioned on Thursday it’s going to arrange a recent five-judge Constitution bench to listen to the pleas difficult the constitutional validity of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ amongst Muslims.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices Hima Kohli and J B Pardiwala was urged by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, who has filed a PIL on the difficulty, {that a} recent five-judge bench was wanted to be constituted as two judges of the earlier bench-Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Hemant Gupta- have demitted workplace.
“We will form a bench,” the CJI responded.
On August 30, a five-judge bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee, Hemant Gupta, Surya Kant, M M Sundresh and Sudhanshu Dhulia had made the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), National Commission for Women (NCW) and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) events to the PILs and sought their responses.
Later, Justice Banerjee and Justice Gupta retired on September 23 and October 16 this yr respectively giving rise to the necessity for re-constitution of the bench to listen to as many as eight petitions towards the practices of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’.
Upadhyay, in his PIL, has sought a path to declare polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ unconstitutional and unlawful.
The apex court docket had in July 2018 thought-about the plea and referred the matter to a Constitution bench already tasked with listening to a batch of comparable petitions.
The apex court docket had issued discover to the Centre on the petition filed by a lady named Farjana and tagged Upadhyay’s plea to a batch of petitions to be heard by the Constitution bench.
The lawyer’s petition sought declaring extrajudicial talaq a cruelty beneath Section 498A (husband or his family members subjecting a lady to cruelty) of of the IPC.
It claimed nikah halala is an offence beneath Section 375 (rape) of the IPC, and polygamy against the law beneath Section 494 (Marrying once more throughout life-time of husband or spouse) of the IPC, 1860.
The apex court docket, which on August 22, 2017 banned the age-old follow of on the spot ‘triple talaq’ amongst Sunni Muslims, had on March 26, 2018 determined to discuss with a bigger bench a batch of pleas difficult the constitutional validity of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’.
While polygamy permits a Muslim man to have 4 wives, ‘nikah halala’ is a course of beneath which a divorced Muslim girl has to first marry one other particular person, consummate it and break up from the second husband, if the couple had been to remarry after a compromise.
The pleas had been referred to a bigger bench by the Supreme Court after an earlier five-judge structure bench in its 2017 verdict saved open the difficulty of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ whereas quashing the follow of ‘triple talaq’.
It had additionally issued notices to the Law and Justice Ministry, the Minority Affairs Ministry and the National Commission of Women (NCW) at the moment.
Some petitions have additionally challenged the practices of ‘Nikah Mutah’ and ‘Nikah Misyar’ — two forms of short-term marriages the place length of the connection is specified and agreed upon prematurely.
In one of many petitions, a lady named Sameena Begum has mentioned by advantage of the Muslim Personal Law, Section 494 of the Indian Penal Code (punishment for marrying once more throughout lifetime of husband or spouse) was rendered inapplicable to Muslims and no married girl from the group has the avenue of submitting a criticism towards her husband for the offence of bigamy.
Another plea was filed by Rani alias Shabnam who alleged that she and her three minor kids had been thrown out of the matrimonial residence after her husband remarried.
She has sought the practices of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ to be declared unconstitutional.
The same plea was filed by Delhi-based Nafisa Khan searching for nearly the identical reliefs.
She has sought declaring the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 unconstitutional and violative of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 (freedom of conscience and free occupation, follow and propagation of faith) of the Constitution in as far as it fails to safe for Indian Muslim girls safety from bigamy which has been statutorily secured for girls in India belonging to different religions.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court mentioned on Thursday it’s going to arrange a recent five-judge Constitution bench to listen to the pleas difficult the constitutional validity of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ amongst Muslims.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices Hima Kohli and J B Pardiwala was urged by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, who has filed a PIL on the difficulty, {that a} recent five-judge bench was wanted to be constituted as two judges of the earlier bench-Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Hemant Gupta- have demitted workplace.
“We will form a bench,” the CJI responded.
On August 30, a five-judge bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee, Hemant Gupta, Surya Kant, M M Sundresh and Sudhanshu Dhulia had made the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), National Commission for Women (NCW) and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) events to the PILs and sought their responses.
Later, Justice Banerjee and Justice Gupta retired on September 23 and October 16 this yr respectively giving rise to the necessity for re-constitution of the bench to listen to as many as eight petitions towards the practices of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’.
Upadhyay, in his PIL, has sought a path to declare polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ unconstitutional and unlawful.
The apex court docket had in July 2018 thought-about the plea and referred the matter to a Constitution bench already tasked with listening to a batch of comparable petitions.
The apex court docket had issued discover to the Centre on the petition filed by a lady named Farjana and tagged Upadhyay’s plea to a batch of petitions to be heard by the Constitution bench.
The lawyer’s petition sought declaring extrajudicial talaq a cruelty beneath Section 498A (husband or his family members subjecting a lady to cruelty) of of the IPC.
It claimed nikah halala is an offence beneath Section 375 (rape) of the IPC, and polygamy against the law beneath Section 494 (Marrying once more throughout life-time of husband or spouse) of the IPC, 1860.
The apex court docket, which on August 22, 2017 banned the age-old follow of on the spot ‘triple talaq’ amongst Sunni Muslims, had on March 26, 2018 determined to discuss with a bigger bench a batch of pleas difficult the constitutional validity of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’.
While polygamy permits a Muslim man to have 4 wives, ‘nikah halala’ is a course of beneath which a divorced Muslim girl has to first marry one other particular person, consummate it and break up from the second husband, if the couple had been to remarry after a compromise.
The pleas had been referred to a bigger bench by the Supreme Court after an earlier five-judge structure bench in its 2017 verdict saved open the difficulty of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ whereas quashing the follow of ‘triple talaq’.
It had additionally issued notices to the Law and Justice Ministry, the Minority Affairs Ministry and the National Commission of Women (NCW) at the moment.
Some petitions have additionally challenged the practices of ‘Nikah Mutah’ and ‘Nikah Misyar’ — two forms of short-term marriages the place length of the connection is specified and agreed upon prematurely.
In one of many petitions, a lady named Sameena Begum has mentioned by advantage of the Muslim Personal Law, Section 494 of the Indian Penal Code (punishment for marrying once more throughout lifetime of husband or spouse) was rendered inapplicable to Muslims and no married girl from the group has the avenue of submitting a criticism towards her husband for the offence of bigamy.
Another plea was filed by Rani alias Shabnam who alleged that she and her three minor kids had been thrown out of the matrimonial residence after her husband remarried.
She has sought the practices of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ to be declared unconstitutional.
The same plea was filed by Delhi-based Nafisa Khan searching for nearly the identical reliefs.
She has sought declaring the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 unconstitutional and violative of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 (freedom of conscience and free occupation, follow and propagation of faith) of the Constitution in as far as it fails to safe for Indian Muslim girls safety from bigamy which has been statutorily secured for girls in India belonging to different religions.
