The Bombay High Court has ruled that a Muslim man is entitled to multiple marriages under personal laws, considering the case of a man who wanted his third marriage legalized. On October 15, a division bench of Justices B P Colabawalla and Somasekhar Sundaresan directed the deputy marriage registration office of the Thane Municipal Corporation to process the man’s application, which he had filed in February last year for registration of his marriage with a woman from Algeria.
The couple contended that their application had been rejected because the man was a third-time groom. While arguing that registering only one marriage was possible, the authorities resorted to the Maharashtra Regulation of Marriage Bureaus and Registration of Marriages Act.
The court termed this refusal as “wholly misconceived” as the Act does not provide for excluding a Muslim man from registering a third marriage. The bench said that Muslim personal laws allow a male to have four wives at a time. The judges said if the court accepts the argument of the authorities, then it would mean the Maharashtra law overrides the Muslim personal laws, which the Act does not suggest.
Significantly, the same authorities had registered the petitioner’s marriage with his second wife. It also rejected the plea regarding the couple’s non-submission of some documents and ordered them to submit all the requisite documents within a period of two weeks.
The Thane civic body is then supposed to hold a personal hearing and give a reasoned order regarding marriage registration within ten days of submission. The court said no coercive action should be taken against the petitioner’s wife, whose passport expired in May.
