CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has stated that a woman cannot be punished for bigamy for marrying a man without knowing he is having a subsisting marriage and a living wife.
Justice N Ramesh made the observation while granting anticipatory bail to a woman who was booked by the Panruti police for offences of bigamy, cruelty, abetment and criminal intimidation under Sections 82, 85, 49, 296 (b) and 351 (2) of the BNS.
She had married without any knowledge about his husband’s first marriage and the living wife. Based on a complaint lodged by the first wife, the police registered the FIR against the petitioner and her husband.
“Section 82 (1) of BNS punishes a person who, having a living spouse, marries again during the subsistence of that marriage. Sub-section 2 enhances the punishment where the offender has concealed the fact of the former marriage from the person with whom the subsequent marriage is contracted,” the judge said in a recent order.
He explained that the offender is the person who already has a living spouse; and the woman, who is unmarried but marries such a person without knowing the subsisting marriage, does not thereby become an offender under Section 82 of the BNS.
The petitioner is not prima facie the person contemplated as an offender under this section, he said, adding that the case against her does not, at this stage, disclose the gravity that would justify the custodial interrogation.
The judge also stated that it is a matter of investigation or trial if the petitioner, in fact, did not know the first marriage of her husband or not. He granted her anticipatory bail to her with conditions including appearing before the respondent police daily for four weeks.