The Supreme Court has sought the Centre’s response on practices such as triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy under the Muslim personal law. The court was hearing a petition filed by one Shayara Bano that calls these practices violations of the right to equality, guaranteed in the Constitution. Hindustan Times reported that a bench of Justices AR Dave and AK Goel issued notices to the women and child development ministry, the ministry of law and justice, the minority affairs ministry, and the National Commission for Women. Bano was divorced in 2015 through the triple talaq, after being married for 12 years.

According to Islamic personal law, a Muslim man can divorce his wife by saying the word talaq three times; The Nikah halala rule means a woman cannot remarry a man she divorced without consummating a marriage with someone else first, which many activists see as a form of rape. In October, the same bench had taken up the gender discrimination in the Muslim personal law. However, a Mumbai-based Muslim organisation had opposed the move, saying the judiciary cannot test the validity of personal law.