Janjivan Bureau
New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on a plea that challenged the constitutional validity of triple talaq. The Bench heard the matter on a day to day basis. Today on the concluding day of the hearing, the court granted each of the parties to make submissions for 20 minutes each.
A five-judge Constitution Bench was headed by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and comprised Justices Kurian Joseph, R.F. Nariman, U.U. Lalit and Abdul Nazeer.
Various parties, including the Union government, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board and various others made submissions during the hearing.
The bench had made it clear that it would examine whether the practice of triple talaq among Muslims is fundamental to their religion and had also said for the time being it will not deliberate upon the issue of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’
It had also said that the issue of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ would be kept pending and will be dealt with later.
‘Nikah halala’ is a practice intended to curb the incidence of divorce under which a man cannot remarry his former wife without her going through the process of marrying someone else, consummating it, getting divorced, observing the separation period called ‘Iddat’ and then returning to him.
The apex court had on its own taken cognisance of the question whether Muslim women faced gender discrimination in the event of divorce or due to other marriages of their husbands.
The hearing assumed significance as the apex court has heard the matter during the summer vacation.
