Does special marriage act, 1954 allow polygyny?

Unless you convert to some other religion, you will be treated as a Hindu under the HMA.

Even the Special Marriage Act does not permit such multiple marriages.

So no, you may not practice Polygyny.

The options or ways out to manage the same are at your discretion and I cannot comment on that as such.

Article 26 of Indian Constitution - Freedom to manage religious affairs Subject to public order, morality and health, every religious denomination or any section thereof shall have the right.

It gives all Indians to execute religious affairs freely. Now as per my knowledge Lord Rama and Seeta are famous for monogamy while Draupadi / Panchali and Lord Krishna are famous for polygamy.

Hence we can understand both monogamy and polygamy were permitted on Hindu Religion. No bar on personal liberty.

Polygamy was legal before 1947 (in British India) however, it was changed when HMA was drafted.

Now questions are,  

whether HMA/SMA is constitutional for polygamy concern ?????

Is this HMA/SMA is drafted by considering all of Hindu religious concerns ????

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Polygamy or Bigamy IPC 494 is non-cognizable and billable. No direct police case on this unless your first wife complains in the court. Nobody is going to question on your wives unless these are proved that marriages are solemnized as per Hindu religious rites or registered before any marriage office with marriage certificates.

Now discretion lies on you how to manage them.  No need to convert to any other religion. 

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You were born as Hindu.

The law may not favor conversion for more marriages purposes. 

Succession to the property of persons married under Spl. Marriage Act is governed by Indian Succession Act, 1925. However, if a Hindu marries a non-Hindu under the Special Marriage Act, succession is regulated by the provisions of the Indian Succession Act but if two persons who are Hindus get married under the Special Marriage Act, they are governed by the Hindu Succession Act.

Legal status of Polygamy and some facts:

Polygamy has often been described as a form of human rights abuse by the world organisations and women's rights groups. In 2000, on the grounds that it violates the dignity of women, the United Nations Human Rights Committee considered polygamy a destruction of the internationally binding International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The United Nations also recommended that it be made illegal in all the states.

• Human polygamy exists in three forms: Polygyny (one man having multiple wives), Polyandry (one woman having multiple husbands), and group marriage (combination of polygyny and polyandry)

• About 50 countries permit polygamous marriages within their jurisdiction

• It is widespread in the Middle East and Northern Africa except Israel, Turkey and Tunisia

• Almost 12 countries recognise polygamous marriages under customary law

• All the northern states in Nigeria, governed by Islamic Sharia law, recognise polygamous marriages

• The United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand permit benefits for spouses of polygamous marriages performed in other countries

• India and Sri Lanka allow polygamous marriages only among Muslim citizens

• Christian nations do not allow polygamy except the Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Zambia

• The only Buddhist nation that allows polygamy is Myanmar

• Pakistan allows a man to marry up to four wives at the same time. The marriage has to be conducted with the permission of existing wife/wives.

Thank you very much Mr. Rama chary Rachakonda for such informative posts.

My opinion is,

why these women rights groups deprives common men’s human rights due to their own mental sickness?

Polygamy is not like – Murder, Kidnapping or Dacoity. It is not an offence at all. It does not violate dignity of men or women as dignity due to mental sickness is not accepted.

So whoever likes polygamy should go ahead and do and whoever does not like should not go. Nobody should suppress no body’s wish due to his/her own mentally sick thinking.

If India and most of the Christian countries allows unlimited adultery and unlimited live-in relationship, then why not polygamy????

(For information, India allows unlimited adultery for men if women are unmarried and unlimited live-in relationship if both men and women are unmarried).

May be near future these women rights group will claim that adultery and unlimited live-in-relationship also violates women dignity.  Very funny. 

Why don’t these groups think about Article 21 of Indian Constitution or any equivalent section of Human Rights as per Vienna Accord 1994 (Currently I am not aware, please help me out to aware.).

Not allowing polygamy also violates personal liberty/livelihood and hence violates human rights.

As per the above case of the quest, his livelihood is violating – Is this not violation of human rights ????

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Except muslim law no other law permits polygammy. So enjoy your life with your married wife and forget other things.

Ee Dil Mange More . 

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Originally posted by : Sidharth Srivastav
	Except muslim law no other law permits polygammy. So enjoy your life with your married wife and forget other things.

As have stated above, Hindu mythology permits polygamy and it was legal before Indian independence.

HMA was not properly drafted out of all Hindu mythological affairs after independence.

HMA and SMA are drafted based on lot of social prejudices hence if your wish to abolish them then you need to sue PIL with the above grounds. 

Originally posted by : Arjun Kohli
	Unless you convert to some other religion, you will be treated as a Hindu under the HMA. Even the Special Marriage Act does not permit such multiple marriages. So no, you may not practice Polygyny. The options or ways out to manage the same are at your discretion and I cannot comment on that as such.

That is quite obvious so do not teach me that how I will be treated. 

I never claimed or asked that what is permitted by under that law and due to which whether I can practice it or not so do not teach me that too and make allegations on me without proof for the same.

I do not need to take lessons from you that what is at my discretion and if you cannot comment or you are not interested to comment then it is your mistake that you chose to study law and you should have not even baselessly replied to my query.