Muslim man’s second marriage during subsistence of first marriage not bigamy: Madhya Pradesh HC

The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently observed that a second marriage contracted by a Muslim man during the subsistence of his marriage to his first wife does not constitute the offence of bigamy under Section 494 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)..Justice BP Sharma reasoned that Section 494, IPC (now replaced by Section 82 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023) is subject to personal law.Muslim personal law permits Muslim men to marry multiple times, subject to certain conditions, the judge further observed. "The applicability of Section 494 IPC is subject to the personal law governing the parties. Under Muslim Personal Law, a Muslim male is permitted to have more than one wife at a time, subject to the conditions recognized by the personal law," the judgment reads. In view of this, the High Court quashed a bigamy charge levelled against a Muslim man for having married a second time while his first marriage was still subsisting. “A second marriage contracted by a Muslim male during the lifetime of his first wife is not treated as void merely on the ground that the first marriage is still subsisting. In view of this legal position, the essential ingredient of Section 494 of IPC, namely that the subsequent marriage must be void on account of the subsistence of the first marriage is not fulfilled in the present case,” the High Court observed..The case arose from a complaint filed by a woman who accused her husband of marital cruelty, harassment, and assault, allegedly due to her inability to bear a child. She further alleged that her husband committed the offence of bigamy by marrying another woman. She added that her husband has been pressurising her to agree to a mutual divorce (khula) since then. A criminal case was registered on her complaint in 2022. The complainant has also accused her estranged husband of having threatened to kill her by poison and of having instigated her to die by suicide. A trial court eventually framed various criminal charges against the accused man for the offences of marital cruelty, bigamy, wrongful confirment and criminal intimidation.The accused man challenged this turn of events before the High Court, where he contended that he cannot be charged with bigamy since Muslim personal law permits men to take multiple wives. He added that the remaining allegations against him were baseless. He further argued that in 2025, a family court annulled his first marriage based on two 'divorce' prouncements he made in May and July 2022..The High Court, by its March 18 ruling, quashed the bigamy charge, observing that since Muslim law permitted men to take multiple wives, continuing the prosecution of the bigame charge would become an abuse of the process of law. "In the present case, the parties are governed by Muslim Personal Law which permits a Muslim male to have more than one wife. Thus, even if the allegations of the complainant are accepted at their face value, the act of the petitioner (Muslim man) in contracting a second marriage would not satisfy the essential ingredients of Section 494 of IPC and continuation of the prosecution for the said offence would amount to an abuse of the process of the Court," the judgment stated..However, the Court clarified that the trial in respect of the remaining criminal charges should continue. "The allegations and the material collected during investigation prima facie disclose the commission of those offences (cruelty, assault, wrongful confinement, intimidation) and therefore they are required to be examined by the trial Court in accordance with law," it said. .Senior Advocate Anil Khare appeared for the petitioner, assisted by Advocate Harjas Singh Chhabra.The State was represented by Deputy Government Advocate Aatmaram Bain. Advocate Naveen Vaswani appeared on behalf of the complainant..[Read Judgment]