The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Union government for the report of the committee set up to look into personal laws relating to marriage, divorce and custody prevalent in various religious minorities, including Muslims.

A bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice UU Lalit asked Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, to file the report within six weeks in the court.


The bench also asked the Ministry of Minority Affairs to file its response to the petition filed by one Shayara Bano challenging the constitutionality of Muslim practices of polygamy, triple talaq (talaq-e-bidat) and nikah halala. Talaq-e-bidat is a Muslim man divorcing his wife by pronouncing more than one talaq in a single tuhr (the period between two menstruations), or in a tuhr after coitus, or pronouncing an irrevocable instantaneous divorce at one go (unilateral triple-talaq). Meanwhile, the bench directed the apex court registry to make available within six weeks the copy of judicial records of a petition on the issue, which was taken note of as a separate petition by it.


The Supreme Court had earlier this month sought response of the Centre on Bano's plea challenging constitutionality of Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, in so far as it seeks to recognise and validate polygamy, triple talaq and nikah halala, and had tagged the matter with a similar suo motu petition.


Bano has said she was subjected to cruelty and dowry demands from her husband and in-laws and was administered drugs that "that caused her memory to fade, kept her unconscious' and made her "critically ill' at which point her husband divorced her by triple talaq.


The petitioner has also challenged the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, saying that it fails to provide Indian Muslim women with protection from bigamy.