The Supreme Court on Friday said it will set up a new five-judge Constitution bench to hear pleas challenging the constitutional validity of polygamy and Nikah halala among the Muslims as Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Hemant Gupta who were part of the earlier five-judge bench have since retired.

Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud heading a bench also comprising Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha said this on BJP leader and advocate Ashiwini Upadhyay’s plea for a fresh five-judge bench to adjudicate the validity of polygamy and Nikah halala.

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Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Hemant Gupta had retired last year on September 23 and October 16 respectively.

There are very important matters which are pending before a five-judge bench. We will constitute one and bear this matter in mind, the CJI said, noting that the Bench was to hear eight petitions against the practice of polygamy and nikah halala.

The matter was earlier mentioned by Upadhyay on November 2.

On August 30 last year, 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 and sought their responses.

While polygamy allows a Muslim man to have four wives, ‘nikah halala’ deals with the process in which a Muslim woman, who wants to remarry her husband after divorce, has to first marry another person and get a divorce from him after the consummation of marriage.

The apex court had in July 2018 considered the plea and referred the matter to a constitution bench already tasked with hearing a batch of similar petitions.