There were several petitions against the provisions of Sharia law. Supreme Court was hearing on such petitions. As per these petitions, Sharia law violates the fundamental rights of married Muslim women. After historical order about Triple Talaq, the Honorable Supreme Court had ordered that all such challenges to the practice of nikah halala and polygamy will be heard by a constitutional bench.
Centre was looking for the response of the Supreme Court in this regard. On Monday, a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra issued this notice. Not just this, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal has also received an order for assisting in this matter.
As per Sharia law, Nikah halala is about marriage of a female divorcee to someone else and then she needs to divorce that man to remarry her previous husband. Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, Advocate and BJP leader had filed a petition against this. He was claiming that existing “sinful form” of nikah halala and polygamy actually violates fundamental rights of married Muslim women. Existing provisions of Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, validates such practices and this should be counted as criminal offence. According to the advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, this simply offends Article 21 (Right to Life), Article 14 (Right to Equality) and Article 15 (Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth) of the Constitution of India.
On Monday, Honorable Supreme Court was hearing a batch of petitions, including one by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay. In this petition, Advocate Upadhyay asked for a complete ban on Polygamy and Nikah-Halala as it renders Muslim wives extremely insecure and also infringes their fundamental rights.
Honourable Supreme Court had ordered on Monday that all such challenges to the practice of nikah halala and polygamy will be heard by the constitutional bench.