A petition was filed before the Supreme Court, seeking the declaration of polygamy and nikah-halala, practised among Muslims, as illegal and unconstitutional.
The woman who filed the petition claimed that she had been illegally divorced by her husband, leaving her and their daughter without any means of living or financial support.
Therefore, she filed a petition, urging the court to declare extra-judicial talaq as a cruelty under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), nikah-halala as an offence under Section 375 of the IPC, and polygamy as an offence under Section 494 of the IPC, 1860.
According to a copy of the petition, accessed by ANI, the woman sought direction from the apex court to declare Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 unconstitutional and void for violating Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 of the Constitution in so far as it seeks to validate the practice of polygamy.
The victim also sought assistance to declare that a Muslim wife whose marriage has been terminated by a valid and legally recognised form of talaq by her husband may remarry her husband without an intervening 'halala' marriage with another man.
The practice of nikah-halala requires a divorced woman to marry someone else, consummate the marriage and then get a divorce in order to again marry her first husband under the Muslim personal law.
On the other hand, polygamy is the practice of having more than one wife or husband at the same time.