Bhuvana Marni
Published on: October 11, 2022 at 11:35 IST
According to the Allahabad High Court, a wife shall not be forced to remain with her Muslim husband (who has remarried) and share his consortium with another woman against her will if the court believes that doing so would be “inequitable.”
An appeal filed by a Muslim man (respondent IV) contesting the family court’s decision to dismiss his claim for the restoration of conjugal rights in relation to his first wife was dismissed by the bench of Justice Surya Prakash Kesarwani and Justice Rajendra Kumar, who made this observation.
The Court stated that although a Muslim husband is legally permitted to marry a second woman while the previous marriage is still going strong, if he does so and then asks the Civil Court for help forcing the first wife to live with him against her will under threat of severe penalties, she is allowed to ask the question of whether the court, acting as a court of equity, should force her to do so.
“…if the husband, after taking a second wife against the wishes of the first, also wants the assistance of the Civil Court to compel the first life with him, the Court will respect the sanctity of the second marriage, but it will not compel the first wife, against her wishes, to live with the husband under the altered circumstances and share his consortium with another woman, if it concludes, on a review of the evidence, that it will be inequitable to compel her to do so,” the Bench further remarked.
Brief Facts of the Case:
The plaintiff-appellant/husband confessed that he got married a second time without telling his first wife (the defendant/respondent), but he still wanted to live with both of them.
When the first wife refused to live with him and share his consortium with another woman, he filed a plea asking for the restoration of his conjugal rights.
The husband’s appeal was rejected by the Family Court after hearing from both sides. He filed the present plea to appeal this ruling to the High Court.
Court Observations:
The High Court particularly said that in dismissing his appeal, the plaintiff-behaviour appellant’s amounted to cruelty to his first wife since he had secretly entered into a second marriage while concealing this fact from his first wife.
The Court did clarify, however, that even in the absence of convincing evidence of the husband’s cruelty, the Court will not issue a judgement for restitution in the husband’s favour if, based on the facts, it believes that doing so would be unfair and unjust to force her to remain with him.
In light of these facts, the Court ruled unequivocally that the first wife cannot be forced to join her husband, the plaintiff-appellant, in a lawsuit for the restoration of their conjugal rights if she does not choose to live with him.
The notion of equality contained in Article 14, the concept of nondiscrimination based on sex, etc. enshrined in Article 15(2), and the concept of the right to life and personal liberty, which includes the right to live with dignity as embodied in Article 21, were all connected by the court.
It’s important to note that a nation’s civilization may be judged by how it treats its women, the Court remarked thus:
“A society that does not respect its women, cannot be treated to be civilized…It is the requisite of the present day that people are made aware that it is obligatory to treat women with respect and dignity so that humanism in its conceptual essentiality remains alive.”
The Court in this particular instance also noted that a Muslim man must refrain from performing a second marriage if he is unable to care for his wife and children.
Insisting that bigamy is forbidden by the Holy Quran unless a man is capable of treating orphans fairly, the Court made the following observations:
“The religious mandate of Sura 4 Ayat 3 (of Quran) is binding on all Muslim men, which specifically mandates all Muslim men to deal justly with orphans, and then they can marry women of their choice two or three or four but if a Muslim man fears that he will not be able to deal justly with them, then only one.”
“If a Muslim man is not capable of fostering his wife and children, then, as per the above mandate of the Holy Quran, he cannot marry the other woman”.
Case Title – Azizurrahman vs. Hamidunnisha @ Sharifunnisha [FIRST APPEAL No. – 700 of 2022]