Petition filed in SC seeking abolition of Nikah-Halala

A resident of Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr on Monday filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking abolition of Nikah Halala - practised among Muslims.

The apex court has tagged this petition, by Farzana, along with other similar petitions.

Over the weekend, a similar petition was filed before the apex court seeking its direction to declare Polygamy and Nikah Halala "illegal and unconstitutional" for being violative of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 of the Constitution.

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 the petition urging the apex 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.

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.