MUMBAI: The Bombay high court rapped the registrar of marriages at Thane Municipal Corporation for once again rejecting a Muslim man’s application to register his third marriage. It set aside the order and directed the marriage to be registered within a week.
“We make it clear that if our directions are not complied with, we will not hesitate to haul up this registrar for contempt of court,” said Justices Burgess Colabawalla and Somasekhar Sundaresan on Tuesday.
The man and his third wife, an Algerian, moved the HC after their Feb 2023 application for a marriage certificate was rejected in March 2023 for not furnishing relevant documents and particularly because the Maharashtra Regulation of Marriage Bureaus and Registration of Marriages Act, 1998, contemplates only a single marriage.
On Oct 15, the HC noted that there is nothing in the Act that precludes a Muslim man from registering a third marriage, when a section specifically contemplates that the registrar has to ensure that the marriage between the parties is performed in accordance with their personal laws. The HC then had noted that ironically, these very authorities registered the man’s marriage with his second wife, a Moroccan citizen. It set aside the impugned order and directed the deputy registrar to grant them a personal hearing and pass a reasoned order.
On Tuesday, the couple’s advocates, Mutahhar Khan and Hafeezur Rehman, informed that on Nov 29, the registrar once again rejected their application, contending that only one marriage can be registered under the Act and registering this marriage would amount to polygamy.
The judges noted that the registrar “embarked on a journey of reinterpreting the word ‘marriage’ and completely ignored the HC’s Oct 15 order that there is nothing in the Act that precludes a Muslim from having four wives at any given point in time. “Once this was the finding given by this court, it was not open to the registrar to embark upon the journey of reinterpreting the provisions of the Act and that too contrary to what is stated in our order,” they added.
The judges said it appears the registrar felt that she could do it despite HC’s order, adding: “This practice is highly deprecated.” Considering these facts, the judges said they had no option but to set aside the registrar’s Nov 29 order “here and now, as it is directly contrary to the law laid down” by the Oct 15 order.
They posted the matter on Jan 2 for reporting compliance and extended protection to the Algerian woman from deportation.
