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RAGUNATHAN (SAFETY )     01 July 2009

second marriage with first wife consent

Dear Sir,

can i proceed with second marriage with the consent of the first wife?

please guide me the legal issues

thanks

ragu



Learning

 36 Replies

N.K.Assumi (Advocate)     01 July 2009

The law is not concerned with the consent of the first wife,what the law says is that no second marriage shall be entered during the substiniance of the first marriage.Bigamy is not concerned with what the wife says but what the law says.
1 Like

aatma   01 July 2009

Probablay it depends on howmuch money or power the person hold. It does not depend on first wife's consent or the law.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... page-1.cms

In South India, more the merrier
2 May 2006


HYDERABAD/CHENNAI/BANGALORE: That engineer K Suryanarayana had two wives became public only after his murder in Afghanistan, but the revelation isn't surprising in Andhra Pradesh, indeed in most of south India.

In Tamil Nadu, bigamy is pretty much institutionalised and even has a name - Chinna veedu, which translates as 'small house' or second home. It is an age-old tradition surviving to this day despite its illegality.

When DMK was in power in the state, security agencies had a tough time providing security to two houses for many ministers, as each of them had two wives.

Whether it was the late M G Ramachandran, or M Karunanidhi, they have all had it, and flaunted it. Karunanidhi has married at least three women, the first of whom is dead.

The DMK chief (present CM) now divides his time in the houses of both wives - spending mornings at the Gopalapuram residence with Dayaluammal while moving to the house of his other wife, Rajathiammal, at CIT Nagar in Chennai in the afternoons.

Another towering Tamil actor, Gemini Ganesan, married five times while his first wife was alive. The Chinna veedu concept is fairly common in Krishnagiri and Salem districts of TN, where males believe in more the merrier.

At least one top Union minister from Tamil Nadu is known to have two wives and so does a senior DMK official, who married his daughter's classmate.

In Andhra, bigamy doesn't have the traditional sanction it enjoys in TN, but the practice is fairly widespread among the powerful and even a status symbol.

 

Under which special section Indian law approved this...................?????

1 Like

N.K.Assumi (Advocate)     01 July 2009

Dear Aaatma, thank you so much for the informations. Well there is a difference between hard and raw laws as it is like Kelsen's theory of Law, and those violating the laws and always remaing above the laws and making the law enforcing authority looks like a clawns coming out of a comic books. Thanks for the informations.

Swami Sadashiva Brahmendra Sar (Nil)     02 July 2009

If a particular person escaped the sanction of law, it can not be taken as a rule or precedent. Many  people complete their train journey  without tickets, but it does not mean that traveling without ticket is no offence.

 

 

 

Satish (Advocate)     02 July 2009

I agree with the views above. Nobody is above the law and what the law that is correct.

SANJAY DIXIT (Advocate)     03 July 2009

NO. Its not legal. Consent against the law has no value at all.

BUT in these type of cases only first wife has right to complain and if she is satisfied and takes no legal action then you are totally safe.

2 Like

G. ARAVINTHAN (Legal Consultant / Solicitor)     06 July 2009

 You mixed politics with your reply... Nice..

praveen choudhary (govt service)     07 July 2009

offence means any act  which is punishable under law. so first of all we see whether bigamy is punishable under law. answer is yes because it is punishable under sec 494 indian penal code and hindu marriage Act 1955.  second marriage with the consent of the first wife is void under section 11 of the hindu marrige act. 1995. any marrige with contradiction of the sectoin 5 of hinu marriage act 1995 is void. consent of first wife has no value in the eye of the law.

Khaleel Ahmed (Legal Advisor)     13 July 2009

No you can not proceed for second marriage with the consent of your first wife..The act will amount offence punishable under 494 IPC.

1 Like

Sarvesh Kumar Sharma Advocate (Advocacy)     13 July 2009

i aggree with mr. khaleel ahmed,what ever is not permited is prohebited.

 

Mrudula (legal Practice in property and Labour laws)     17 July 2009

How can u say that "if wife does not take any action then u are totally safe". when the law itself prohibits the biagamy, then the cosent of  second wife is itself immaterial. More imporatant is that when wife is Satisfied, as u said, then go to court and get separated legally by mutual divorce. Let the court know that the first wife has not objection with the second marriage. Other wise it will be assumed that, u have gained the consent by way of threat, coercian, or wrongful representation or likewise. and no body can cheat the judiciary, for long.

 

Swami Sadashiva Brahmendra Sar (Nil)     17 July 2009

Kindly see, if following case is helpful from practical point of view:

In P. Satyanarayana and another  v. P. Mallaiah 1996 AIR SCW 4000 : (1996) 6 SCC 122 the wife-respondent filed a written complaint before the police under Section 494 of the Indian Penal Code which after investigation was put in Court for trial of the appellant as well as his alleged second wife, the second appellant. Charge was laid against him. In entering upon plea against the charge, the husband-appellant stated:

“True. I have not committed any crime. I have married after ten years of my wife deserted and went away.”

His plea was sought to be read as if he had admitted having married a second time. The learned Trial Magistrate recorded the prosecution evidence and came to the conclusion that there was no legal evidence to prove the factum of marriage on the basis of the tests laid down by this Court in Bhaurao Shankar Lokhande v. State of Maharashtra, (1965)2 SCR 837: (AIR 1965 SC 1564); Kanwal Ram v. Himachal Pradesh Administration, (1966) 1 SCR 539 : (AIR 1966 SC 614) and Priya Bala Ghosh v. Suresh Chandra Ghosh, (1971) 1 SCC 864. He thus acquitted the appellant.

 The High Court on a private revision by the wife-respondent, upset the order of acquittal mainly on the ground that there was an admission of the first appellant in response to the charge laid against him. The High Court, therefore, ordered a re-trial.

In SLP the Supreme Court held that the High Court was in error in upsetting the well-considered order of the Trial Magistrate requiring due ceremonies of the alleged second marriage being proved so as to satisfy the tests laid down by this Court in the afore-referred cases. The plea of guilt afore-referred to could at best be understood to mean that the first appellant had taken a wife, but that admission did not necessarily mean that he had taken the second wife after solemnizing a Hindu marriage with her after performing due ceremonies for marriage. Such plea, which he need not have even entered upon, and which was ignorable by the Court, did not absolve the prosecution to otherwise prove its case, that the marriage in question was performed in a regular way so as to visit him with penal consequences. The Supreme Court said  that a futile exercise has been enjoined upon the Magistrate by the High Court in ordering a retrial when the evidence, as it was, had been discussed and rejected threadbare.

Interestingly, the Supreme Court recorded the statement of learned counsel for the first appellant to the effect that the said appellant is a class- IV employee working in the State Board of Revenue, fetching about Rs. 1600/- per mensem as salary out of which, under Court orders he pays, in an interim way, Rs. 400/- per mensem as maintenance to the respondent-wife and his grown-up child. A genuine offer was made by learned counsel to increase the said allowance, should the respondent-wife not persist in her claim in branding the first appellant as a bigamist; for if he were to get convicted and imprisoned, she would lose the maintenance altogether. The Supreme Court accepted the argument and said that the complainant cannot afford to kill the goose which lays the golden egg. It was held that hard realities of the situation require that the first appellant is not deprived of his job so that he keeps providing the necessary wherewithal to the respondent-wife and his child, besides maintaining himself. The Supreme Court directed the appellant to pay to the respondent and his child a sum of Rs. 800/- per mensem as offered on these considerations as maintenance allowance.

 

senthilkumar (advocate)     17 July 2009

secnd marriage with or without the consent of the first wife is a crime.you can marry for the second time only after getting a proper final order of divorce granted by a competened court, otherwise you have to face the risk of beingpenalised by the law enforcing agencies, Becuse your first wife may give her consent now, but human mind is not always in a static condition, if circumstances compels or your first wife's mind changes and makes a complained you have to undergo penal consequences.

Dharmesh Manjeshwar (Advocate/Lawyer)     17 July 2009

consent or no consent of first wife - is immaterial and has no binding of law - the act of marrying again ( during lifetime of a spouse ) is a crime punishable u/s - 494 of the IPC.

Well too much has been said about this small topic lets all close this .....


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