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reetvikasn   25 October 2022

Validity of secret marriage

I am 45 years old. I and my legally married wife do not stay together for the last five years. But we are not judicially divorced. We have a 12 year old son from wedlock. For two years I have been in a relationship with a woman. She is married. She is pursuing me to get married secretly, performing some of the Hindu marriage rituals. I have apprehensions about whether this action may cause me trouble in the future; e.g. she may create a ruckus in my social or personal life claiming I married her or she may claim my property after my death etc. Kindly suggest what shall I do. Thanks.



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 1 Replies

Dr J C Vashista (Advocate)     26 October 2022

You are inviting your wife to prosecute you under section 494 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 for the offence of bigamy during subsistance of legal marriage, where you can be punished for 7 years imprisonment which reads as:

Section 494 in The Indian Penal Code

494. Marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife.—Whoever, having a husband or wife living, marries in any case in which such marriage is void by reason of its taking place during the life of such husband or wife, shall be punished with imprisonment of either descripttion for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.

(Exception) —This section does not extend to any person whose marriage with such husband or wife has been declared void by a Court of competent jurisdiction, nor to any person who contracts a marriage during the life of a former husband or wife, if such husband or wife, at the time of the subsequent marriage, shall have been continually absent from such person for the space of seven years, and shall not have been heard of by such person as being alive within that time provided the person contracting such subsequent marriage shall, before such marriage takes place, inform the person with whom such marriage is contracted of the real state of facts so far as the same are within his or her knowledge.


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