Absence of law can’t give blanket immunity to adulterer, says HC

Absence of a law that makes adultery an offence cannot provide individuals with a blanket immunity of marrying another person secretly during the subsistence of their first marriage, the Delhi high court said, adding that it was crucial to legally protect those partners who have committed to the sanctity and values of marriage. The bench in the verdict made public on Friday noted that such insistence should not be used as a tactic to evade legal consequences since a second marriage during the subsistence of the first would generally be a clandestine marriage and had the capability of producing difficulties in proving whether the persons followed all the rituals or married by any other legally accepted form. In any case, it cannot be expected that the husband of a wife will get married for the second time, during the subsistence of earlier marriage, after informing her first wife or in her presence so that she can collect evidence of his second marriage and the ceremonies performed therein.” The lady had approached high court against session’s court’s 2019 order of quashing the summons issued by the Magistrate in a case filed by her against her husband under section 494 of the Indian Penal Code. The city court while quashing the summoning order held that though it was mandatory to provide proof of solemnisation of second marriage in accordance with essential religious rites for establishing bigamy, the lady had failed to provide oral or documentary evidence regarding her husband and the other woman performing Saptapadi around the sacred fire.