SC Orders Protection For Petitioner In 'Nikah-Halala' Matter Allegedly Attacked With Acid [Read Order]

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra today ordered the UP police to provide protection to Shabnam Rani, a petitioner before the Supreme Court against Nikah-halala who was allegedly attacked with acid by her brother-in-law and his friend.

“Senior Superintendent of police of Bulandshahr shall provide adequate security to the petitioner. She may also be escorted with police protection in case she wants to go outside the state and if the petitioner makes a request in this regard”, the bench said as Senior Advocate Sajan  Poovayya presented her plight before the court.

When he sought compensation for acid attack, the bench said it shall be extended as per the apex court’s earlier directions regarding compensation for acid attack victims and no separate orders were required. The district hospital has however been directed to provide all kinds of medical aid to the victim.

Shabnam lives in Delhi and was married off to Bulandshahr. She accused her husband Muzammil of giving her triple talaq and later also forcing her to perform halala with her brother-in-law which she refused.

Shabnam says when she had gone to visit her in-laws in Bulandshahr to discuss certain issues, the two men threw acid on her. She was rushed to the local hospital and her condition is said to be stable.

Including the one filed by Shabnam, SC is already seized of six petitions- filed by three other victims Nafisa Begum, Sameena Begum, Farzana and two advocates Ashwini Upadhyay and Mohsin Kathiri challenging the constitutional validity of the polygamy and nikah-halala.Jamiat-Ulama-I-Hind moved the SC supporting the practices.

After she was given triple talaq by Muzammil who then went on to marry one Shabana, the local residents of Jauligarh, Bulandshahr pressurized Shabnam’s in-laws and only thereafter she was allowed to stay in their home.

“My parents spent around Rs five lakh including dowry and ornaments. After the marriage my husband and in laws started harassing, humiliating, taunting, torturing and threatening for bringing inadequate dowry and pressurize me to get a car.One day I was being thrown out from her matrimonial home by her husband and since then she is living in the house of her in laws at Jauligarh, Bulandshahr, U.P., at the mercy of her in laws and local villagers without having any source of income".

The husband of the petitioner had a second marriage with a lady namely Sabana.

The Petitioner is living with her three children at her in-laws home and the local villagers providing her the essential support for survival.