New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday said that it will constitute a new five-judges bench at “appropriate stage” to handle a batch of pleas that demands to scrap polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ among Muslims, reported the news agency PTI.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud that consisted Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala was hearing the matter. As many as eight petitions, as per the PTI, were filed in the matter that challenged the constitutional validity of polygamy in the Muslim community.

“I will consider it. At an appropriate stage, I will constitute a constitution bench,” responded the CJI.

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Last year on August 30, a five-judge bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee, Hemant Gupta, Surya Kant, M M Sundresh and Sudhanshu Dhulia had made the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), National Commission for Women (NCW) and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) parties to the PILs.

The bench had sought the responses of all the parties.

The constitution of a fresh bench was mandated after Justice Banerjee and Justice Gupta were retired on September 23 and October 6 last year respectively.

Lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay who filed the petition urged the bench to render the practice of polygamy illegitimate.

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Polygamy in the Muslim community allows its men to marry four wives. Meanwhile, ‘Nikah Halala’ is a practice where a Muslim woman have to marry another man and consummate with him to take divorce so that she can re-marry her previous husband.

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