SC refuse urgent hearing on plea against 'nikah halala'

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to urgently list a batch of petitions challenging the legal validity of 'nikah halala' and polygamy practices among Muslims.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, however, said it would consider setting up of a five-judge constitution bench to examine the matter.

Senior advocate V Shekhar and advocate Ashwini Kumar Updhayay, appearing for Delhi-based Sameena Begum, sought an urgent hearing, alleging she has been threatened to withdraw the petition.

“We will list her petition along with other petitions,” the bench said.

The apex court, which on August 22 last year had banned the age-old practice of instant 'triple talaq' among Sunni Muslims, had on March 26 this year decided to refer to a larger bench a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of polygamy and 'nikah halala' among Muslims.

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 the second person after the consummation.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, said the government will file its response to the petitions.