Bigamy
dr anurag kashyap
(Querist) 20 September 2012
This query is : Resolved
i want to know who can file a bigamy case against the husband.this person married another lady fraudulently without disclosing that is divorce case is pending in the courts. now bigamy case can be filed by the first wife only who was legally married or the second lady can also file a case of bigamy after prooving the marriage
ajay sethi
(Expert) 20 September 2012
Second marriage during the subsistence of the first marriage is illegal in India and the
relationship arising from the same does not have any validity. second marriages can be declared null and void.
first wife can file case of bigamy against husband if he marries during subsitence of marriage . The wife can file a complaint either in the court or in the Police station
second wife can also file case for bigamy
ajay sethi
(Expert) 20 September 2012
Second wife can also sue husband for bigamy, says SC
July 28, 2011
Promiscuous men beware! Not just your legally-wedded wife but even the second woman with whom you solemnise a marriage can land you in jail for bigamy. The Supreme Court has ruled that a woman with whom second marriage is performed is also entitled to drag the man to court under section
494 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which makes bigamy a criminal offence, punishable with a jail term of maximum seven years.
“To hold that a woman with whom second marriage is performed is not entitled to maintain a complaint under section 494 IPC though she suffers legal injuries would be height of perversity,” a bench headed by justice JM Panchal said while ordering the prosecution of an Andhra Pradesh policeman for bigamy.
Rejecting the policeman’s contention that complaint of dowry harassment against him by the second woman was not maintainable because she was not his legally wedded wife in view of subsistence of his first marriage, the bench restored the charges under section 498A of IPC. The section 494 of IPC is a gender neutral, but, generally it is men who are at the receiving end of this provision and it is the first wife who as an “aggrieved person” invokes the anti-bigamy law.
Maintaining that section 494 is intended to achieve “laudable object of monogamy,” the bench said it “does not restrict right of filing complaint to the first wife and there is no reason to read the said section in a restricted manner…”
Senior advocate Geeta Luthra said: “The judgement explains the meaning of the phrase aggrieved person and also gives an alternative to many women who cannot take benefit of section 498A because of them being victims of an illegal/second marriage…”
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Second-wife-can-also-sue-husband-for-bigamy-says-SC/Article1-726367.aspx
R.K Nanda
(Expert) 20 September 2012
first wife can file bigamy case.
Devajyoti Barman
(Expert) 20 September 2012
Either of the wives can file case for bigamy.
The case is not limited to first wife only.
R.K Nanda
(Expert) 20 September 2012
second wife is not wife legally as her said marriage is void and illegal and thus she cannot file bigamy case.
ajay sethi
(Expert) 20 September 2012
well MR Nanda with great respect to you supreme court has ruled that second wife can also file for bigamy
R.K Nanda
(Expert) 20 September 2012
it is ok ok.
