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The Bombay High Court has affirmed that a Muslim man is entitled to register more than one marriage, in accordance with personal laws that allow for multiple wedlocks. This ruling came during the case of a man seeking to register his third marriage, ANI reported.
A division bench consisting of Justices B P Colabawalla and Somasekhar Sundaresan, on 15th October, directed the deputy marriage registration office of the Thane Municipal Corporation to process the application filed by a Muslim man in February of the previous year. He sought to register his marriage with a woman from Algeria.
In their plea, the couple requested that the authorities issue them a marriage certificate, contending that their application was denied due to it being the man's third marriage. According to ANI, the authorities had refused to register the marriage, citing the Maharashtra Regulation of Marriage Bureaus and Registration of Marriages Act, which, they claimed, defines marriage as a single union, thereby excluding multiple marriages.
However, the bench characterised the authority's refusal as "wholly misconceived," stating that there was nothing in the entire framework of the Act that would prevent a Muslim man from registering a third marriage. "Under personal laws for Muslims, they are entitled to have four wives at a time. Once this is the case, we are unable to accept the submission of the authorities that under the provisions of the Maharashtra Regulation of Marriage Bureaus and Registration of Marriages Act, only one marriage can be registered, even in the case of a Muslim male," the court stated.
The bench further reasoned that accepting the authorities' argument would imply that the Maharashtra Regulation of Marriage Bureaus and Registration of Marriages Act supersedes the personal laws of Muslims. "There is absolutely nothing in this Act to indicate that the personal laws of Muslims have been excluded," they added.
Interestingly, the same authorities had previously registered the petitioner's marriage to his second wife. The authorities also claimed that the couple had not provided certain required documents. In response, the court instructed the petitioners to submit all pertinent documents within a fortnight.
The court mandated that once these documents are submitted, the relevant officials of the Thane civic body must conduct a personal hearing with the petitioners and issue a reasoned order regarding the marriage registration within ten days, either granting or denying it. Until that time, the bench directed that no coercive measures should be taken against the woman, whose passport expired in May of this year.
(With inputs from ANI)
