Supreme Court to hear plea challenging the validity of Sharia courts

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea against the decision of setting up Sharia Courts to hold the judgments of marriages and divorces.

A bench comprising of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud have asked the petitioner Zikra to file an application challenging the practice of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ among Muslims, reported PTI.

A 21-year-old resident of Uttar Pradesh, Zikra, had petitioned for Triple Talaq to be declared “cruelty” under Section 498A and ‘nikah halala, nikah mutah and nikah-misyar’ rape under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code.”

“Polygamy is an offence under Section 494 of the IPC,” she said in her plea reports the news agency.

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“Declare that establishing a Sharia court to decide cases related to marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance, succession and/or other similar matters is illegal and unconstitutional.”

She has been divorced twice and narrated the experience of facing triple talaq, nikah halala, where she had to undergo Nikah Halala, in order to marry her former husband.

Under Nikah Halala, a man cannot marry his former wife unless she marries another man, consummates, then gets a divorce and has observed ‘iddat,’ a period of separation.

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“Nikah halala, nikah mutah, nikah misyar and polygamy definitely run counter to public order, morality and health,” read Zaria’s plea.

The laws must “Yield to the basic right of women to live with dignity, under equal protection of laws, without any discrimination on the basis of gender or religion.”

The apex court had last year banned the ancient practice of instant ‘triple talaq.”
Then on March 26, it had referred a batch of pleas, which challenged the constitutional validity of polygamy and ‘nikah halala,’ to a five-judge constitution.

The Muslim personal laws of India, however, permits the practise of Polygamy and nikah halala.