Can a Muslim man remarry without the consent of his first wife? Does it amount to bigamy under the Indian Penal Code? A petition to quash a complaint of bigamy against a man from Chhattisgarh has sparked a discussion in the Gujarat high court on whether IPC should prevail over Muslim personal laws.
The questions arose during the hearing of a petition filed by Zafar Abbas Merchant of Raipur in Chhattisgarh. Merchant's wife Sajedabanu returned to her parental home in Bhavnagar from Raipur in 2001 following marital discord. Merchant remarried in 2003 without her consent. A year later, Sajedabanu filed a police complaint accusing Merchant of bigamy .
The Bhavnagar police booked him for bigamy , cruelty, wife-beating and also under dowry prohibition laws.The offence of bigamy , Section 494 of the IPC, was invoked for not taking the consent of his first wife for second marriage.
Merchant moved the high court in 2010, claiming that his second marriage was not bigamous as Muslim personal laws permitted a man to marry four times.
