Ban nikah halala and polygamy, Muslim divorcee urges high court

MUMBAI: Five years after a Muslim woman from Nalasopara was given triple talaq by her husband, she approached the

Bombay high court

on Tuesday seeking to outlaw the practice of nikah halala and polygamy in the community. She also urged the court to set aside the triple talaq granted to her by her husband.

The 33-year-old woman, who has requested that her name be withheld, has called bigamy, polygamy and nikah halala as the “biggest problems suffered by Muslim women in India today”. Nikah halala is the practice where a

Muslim divorcee

has to marry another person, consummate the marriage and then get divorced to remarry her former husband.

Advocate Nitin Satpute, counsel for the petitioner, said the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017, introduced by the Union government, has failed to take note of these practices. “The Bill bans instant triple talaq and penalizes men. However, there is no mention about the equally problematic customs of polygamy and nikah halala that afflict Muslim women and is considered as legal, as per the personal law of the community,” said Satpute. The petition is likely to be mentioned for hearing later this week.

According to the petition, the

Muslim Personal Law

(Shariat) Application Act enacted in 1937 provides for the application of Muslim personal law in matters relating to marriage where the parties are Muslims. “It conveys a wrong impression that the law sanctions the sinful form of talaq, nikah halala, and polygamy, which is grossly injurious to the fundamental rights of married Muslim women,” claimed the petition. “Giving recognition to nikah halala and to talaq-e-bidat as valid form of divorce interferes with the Muslim women’s right to profess and practise her religion...it unleashes a spiritual offence on her.” The petitioner pointed out that while bigamy and polygamy have been banned for Christians, Parsis, Hindus, Skihs, Jains and other communities by enacting laws, there was no relief for Muslim women in this issue.

The petitioner had married an Andheri businessman in 2010. She claimed that within a few months of marriage, her husband and in-laws started harassing her and it also resulted in a stillbirth. She claimed she was driven out of her matrimonial home and in 2012, she was mailed a document which purported to be a triple talaq given to her by her husband, who by then married another woman.

In her petition, the woman said her thumb impression in the talaq document was forged. When she filed an application seeking maintenance, her husband indicated in court that he wanted to reconcile with her. He, however, asked her to undergo nikah halala and marry another man. She alleged that he wanted her to do so to “frustrate her maintenance”.

In her petition, she also cited media reports where people offered nikah halala services to women who wanted to remarry their former husbands. The petition claimed that this exposes women to blackmail, sexual and financial exploitation and puts them at risk for sexually transmitted diseases. “The legislature has failed to ensure the basic dignity and equality of women in general and Muslim women, in particular, when it concerns matters of marriage and divorce and succession,” the petition said.

She has urged the court to set aside the triple talaq granted to her by her husband and order a ban on polygamy and nikah halala in the community.


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