SC refuses urgent listing of plea to declare nikah halala as unconstitutional

New Delhi, Dec 02: The Supreme Court has turned down a request for urgent listing of a plea to declare the practices of polygamy and 'nikah halala' among Muslims as unconstitutional.

The CJI remarked that these practices have been going on for thousands of years and it may be a religious custom.

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 plea said that "extra-judicial talaq" amounted to cruelty and be made an offence under section 498A (subjecting a married woman to cruelty) of the IPC. It also sought that the practice of 'nikah halala' be considered as the offence of rape under the IPC.