The Kerala High Court rejected a petition filed by a 44-year-old man from Kannur who had sought to have his second marriage officially registered, ruling that constitutional rights take precedence over religious considerations.
The man, who had already registered his first marriage, entered into a second marriage in 2017 with his first wife’s consent. He and his second wife later applied to the local panchayat to register their marriage so that their two children could have clear legal rights to property. When the civic body declined, they turned to the High Court for relief.
Justice P. V. Kunhikrishnan, while dismissing the plea on October 31, stated that the petitioner was free to remarry if permitted under his personal law but that such religious provisions did not override the constitutional framework governing marriage registration, Indian Express reported.
“However, if the petitioner wishes to register his second marriage, the law of the land will prevail, and in such a situation, an opportunity of hearing for the first wife is necessary. In such situations, religion is secondary and constitutional rights are supreme. In other words, this is essentially the fundamental principle of natural justice. This court cannot ignore the feelings, if any, of the first wife when her husband registers his second marriage in accordance with the law of the land.”
“I don’t think that the Holy Qur’an or the Muslim Law permits an extramarital relationship with another lady when his first wife is alive and his first marriage with her is in existence, and that also, without the knowledge of his first wife. The principles derived from the Holy Qur’an and Hadith collectively enjoin principles of justice, fairness, and transparency in all marital dealings,” the court said.
The court ruled that the first wife cannot remain a silent spectator to the registration of the second marriage, despite the fact that Muslim Personal Law permits a second marriage in specific circumstances.
The court stated that "let the Muslim women also get an opportunity of hearing when their husbands remarry, at least at the stage of registering the second marriage," and that if the petitioners file a new application for registering the second marriage, the Registrar of Marriages must serve a notice to the man's first wife. If she objects to the second marriage's registration, the petitioners should be instructed to seek judicial review of the second marriage's validity, according to the court.