Bengaluru, July 25 -- In a significant ruling, the Karnataka High Court has held that a Muslim man cannot rely on the permissibility of polygamy under Muslim personal law to validate a second marriage solemnised under the Special Marriage Act (SMA), 1954, while his first marriage is still subsisting, observing that such a marriage is void from its inception.
Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum, while dismissing a writ petition filed by a woman claiming to be the second wife of a deceased man, ruled that once parties voluntarily choose to marry under the Special Marriage Act, they are governed exclusively by the provisions of that statute and cannot selectively invoke personal law to avoid its mandatory conditions.
The petitioner had sought to ...