Mumbai: A Muslim man can register more than one marriage as their personal laws entitles them to have four wives at a time, the Bombay High Court said.
The court has allowed the petition by a man seeking to register his third marriage to a woman from Algeria.
The court has directed the office of the deputy marriage registration of the Thane Municipal Corporation to decide the application filed by a Muslim man in February 2023 seeking to register his third marriage.
The couple filed a petition in the HC seeking direction to the authorities to register their marriage, claiming that their application was rejected as this was the man’s third marriage.
The authorities justified their action stating that under the Maharashtra Regulation of Marriage Bureaus and Registration of Marriage Act, the definition of marriage contemplates only a single marriage and not multiple unions. Hence they refused to register the man’s third marriage.
A bench of Justices BP Colabawalla and Somasekhar Sundaresan, however, termed the refusal as “wholly misconceived” and observed that said in the entire scheme of the Act, there is nothing that would preclude a Muslim man from registering a third marriage.
“Under the 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 bench said on October 15.
If this contention of the authorities were to be accepted, then it would effectively mean that the Maharashtra Regulation of Marriage Bureaus and Registration of Marriages Act overrides and/or has displaced the personal laws of Muslims. “There is absolutely nothing in this Act to indicate that the personal laws of Muslims have been excluded,” it added.
Ironically, the same authorities had registered the man/s second marriage, the bench remarked. When the authorities said that the couple had not furnished certain documents while seeking registration of marriage, the court asked the couple to submit relevant documents within two weeks.
The bench has then directed the concerned authority of the Thane civic body to give a personal hearing to the couple and pass a reasoned order either granting marriage registration or refusing the same within ten days. If denied, the matter will be referred to the Registrar General under the Act for further review and hearing.
In the meantime, the bench has restrained the Bureau of Immigration and Foreigners Regional registration Office from taking any coercive steps against the woman as her passport expired in May this year.
