Legality of Polygamy in India

Syllabus: GS2/Governance 

In News

• The Supreme Court is hearing a plea challenging the constitutional legality of polygamy under the Muslim Personal Law. 

Polygamy

• It  is the practice of having more than one married spouse — wife or husband.
• Types: 
  • Polygyny: One man having multiple wives.
  • Polyandry: One woman having multiple husbands.
  • Bigamy: Marrying another person while the first valid marriage is still in force.
• In India, monogamy is mandatory under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Special Marriage Act, 1954. However, polygamy is not prohibited under Muslim personal law.
• According to NFHS-5 (2019–21), polygamy was reported among different religious communities, with higher prevalence in some Northeastern and tribal-population areas.
  • The highest prevalence of polygamy was noticed in the Christian community. 
  • The respective figures for the two communities were 2.1% for Christians and 1.9% for Muslims. 
  • Only 1.3% of Hindu men have more than one wife.

Historical and Cultural Reasons of Polygamy

• Economic reasons: In rural or agricultural societies, more wives could mean more labour for household and agricultural chores.
• Patriarchal traditions: The importance placed on male heirs and lineage sometimes encouraged men to marry again if their first wife had no children or no sons.
• Religious and customary traditions : Personal laws of some religions and the customs of some tribes in some cases permitted polygynous marriages.
• Social protection: In some pre-industrial and conflict-affected countries, subsequent marriages may provide economic security and social protection for widows or vulnerable women.

Arguments Against Polygamy 

• Gender Inequality & Exploitation : Polygamy continues patriarchal dominance by creating an uneven dynamic in marriage, where males are allowed to have multiple wives, but women are not.
• Mental Health: Co-wives usually suffer emotional agony, economic insecurity, marginalisation and marital discord in the family.
• Economic Strain:Maintaining multiple households often leads to diluted financial resources, impacting the care, nutrition, and education of children born into such unions.
• Breach of Constitutional Principles : Critics have argued that legalisation of polygamy would be against Article 14 (Right to Equality) and Article 21 (Right to Life and Personal Dignity) of the Indian Constitution.

Rules and Regulations 

• Matters of marriage, divorce and succession are governed by personal laws based on religious identity because India does not have a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) applicable to the entire nation.
  • For the majority of the population, monogamy is the only legal form of marriage. 
• The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 – which governs Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs – prohibits bigamy.
  • If a person governed by the Hindu Marriage Act marries again while a spouse is living, the second marriage is considered invalid.
• The Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936 expressly prohibits bigamy for Parsis. 
• The Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872 prohibits the certification of marriages involving Christians if either of them is already married to someone else.
• Section 82 of the BNS criminalises bigamy and Bigamy can attract up to seven years’ imprisonment and a fine when the second marriage is legally void because the first spouse is still living.
  • The exception to the rule lies in Muslim personal law. Governed by the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, Muslim men are legally permitted to have up to four wives. 
  • Consequently, the penal provisions of the BNS regarding bigamy do not apply to Muslim men as their personal law sanctions the practice. 

State wise Regulations 

• Uttarakhand: Its Uniform Civil Code (2024) prohibits bigamy for all residents. 
• Assam : The Assam Prohibition of Polygamy Bill, 2025 allows for strong punishment including upto 7 years of imprisonment and 10 years imprisonment in case a previous marriage is disguised.
• Tribal exemptions: Both Assam and Uttarakhand give exemptions to the Scheduled Tribes and some protected tribal areas in the acknowledgement of their customary rules that are protected by the Constitution.
• Goa: Goa has been following a uniform civil code based on Portuguese civil code for over a century.
  • But Goa Civil Code allows a Hindu man to marry again in some limited situations like the woman being infertile or not being able to have a male child.
    • But the clause is considered to be virtually obsolete and is not said to have been used since 1910.

Supreme Court on Polygamy 

• In Sarla Mudgal v. Union of India (1995) the Court held that a Hindu man cannot convert to Islam to marry again, while his first marriage is still valid. Such a second marriage is void. 
• In Lily Thomas v. Union of India (2000) the Court reiterated its stand that a second marriage after fraudulent or sham conversion is illegal and punishable.
  • Both judgements stressed that conversion could not be used to get around existing marriage laws.
• In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that polygamy was not an essential practice of Islam and hence not protected under Article 25 of the Constitution.
  • The Court said, religious freedom protects faith but not behaviours that are against public order, health or morals

Source :TH