First wife must be heard before registering Muslim man’s second marriage: HC

The Kerala High Court has held that a Muslim man’s first wife must be heard by the statutory authorities concerned, before registering his second marriage under the Kerala Registration of Marriages (Common) Rules, 2008.

A Bench of Justice P. V. Kunhikrishnan observed that the law of the land would prevail if a second marriage has to be registered, even though Muslim personal law allowed a man to marry a second time in certain situations. Religion would thus become secondary to constitutional rights.

The court made the observations while considering a petition filed by a Muslim man and his second wife, who were aggrieved by the alleged non registration of their marriage by the registering authority concerned.

Dismissing their plea, the court said that the man’s first wife is not even a party to the writ petition. But the petitioners are free to file an application before the respondents concerned. Subsequently, the Registrar of Marriages must issue notice to the man’s first wife. If she objected to the registration of the second marriage saying that it was invalid, the parties could approach a competent court to determine the validity of the second marriage. Let Muslim women also get an opportunity to be heard if their husbands remarry, at least at the stage of second marriage.

In this case, the petitioner who has two children from his first marriage that had been registered before the registering authority, married yet again as per customary law. He thus had two children from the second marriage as well, and wanted to register the marriage to ensure that they also have the right over his property. The petitioners approached the HC after the registering authority refused to register the second marriage.