Explained: How polygamy is regulated in India, from personal laws to state bans | Explained News

Patchwork of personal laws

Since India doesn’t have a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) relevant to the whole nation, issues of marriage, divorce and succession are ruled by personal laws primarily based on spiritual id.

For nearly all of the inhabitants, monogamy is the one authorized type of marriage. The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 – which governs Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs – prohibits bigamy. If an individual ruled by the Hindu Marriage Act marries once more whereas a partner is residing, the second marriage is thought of invalid.

Similarly, the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936 expressly prohibits bigamy for Parsis. The Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872, however, prohibits the certification of marriages involving Christians if both of them is already married to another person.

Section 82 of the BNS criminalises bigamy when “such marriage is void by reason of its taking place during the life of such husband or wife.” This implies that when bigamy is prohibited by a personal legislation, partaking in it will invite prison penalties – of imprisonment up to seven years, together with a tremendous.

The exception to the rule lies in Muslim personal legislation. Governed by the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, Muslim males are legally permitted to have up to 4 wives. Consequently, the penal provisions of the BNS concerning bigamy don’t apply to Muslim males as their personal legislation sanctions the apply. This authorized dichotomy – the place an act punishable by jail for a Hindu is a authorized proper for a Muslim – has been a central level of rivalry in the talk surrounding a nation-wide UCC.

New state bans on polygamy

The legislative strikes in Assam and Uttarakhand search to override the Muslim personal legislation exemption inside the states.

The Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code, handed in February 2024, explicitly bans bigamy. The Code lists 5 circumstances for marriage, the primary being that “neither party has a spouse living at the time of the marriage”. This provision applies to all residents of the state, successfully nullifying the permission for polygamy beforehand out there to Muslim residents.

The Assam Prohibition of Polygamy Bill, 2025, is notably stringent. It categorises the offence of polygamy as being cognisable (permitting an arrest and not using a warrant) and non-bailable (the place bail is not assured as a matter of proper). The Bill proposes imprisonment of up to seven years and a tremendous for coming into right into a polygamous marriage. If the offence includes concealing a former marriage from the brand new partner, the imprisonment can lengthen up to 10 years.

Beyond incarceration, the Assam laws imposes civil disabilities. An individual convicted below this legislation might be ineligible for public employment funded by the state and might be barred from contesting any elections in Assam.

However, each state legislations don’t apply to tribal communities.

The Uttarakhand Bill explicitly states that its provisions don’t apply to members of any Scheduled Tribes whose customary rights are protected below the Constitution. Similarly, the Assam Bill exempts tribal populations and doesn’t apply to areas below the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, such because the Bodoland Territorial Region and the hill districts of Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong. This exclusion is meant to defend the distinctive customary practices of tribal teams, that are safeguarded below the Constitution.

Goa exception

While Assam and Uttarakhand are current entrants into this authorized house, Goa has operated below a uniform code for over a century – properly earlier than it built-in with India. This is by advantage of the state having retained the Portuguese Civil Code,1867, which it operated below as a Portuguese colony, even after its liberation in 1961.

In Goa, marriage is a contract between two individuals of various sexes and the civil registration of marriage is necessary. It usually mandates monogamy – due to this fact, a Muslim man in Goa can not legally have a second spouse.

However, the Goa Civil Code comprises a singular, albeit archaic, provision for Hindus. It permits a Hindu man to marry a second time below particular, restricted circumstances: if his spouse fails to conceive by the age of 25 or fails to ship a male youngster by the age of 30. While this provision exists in the statute, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has mentioned that the supply for Hindus is nearly “redundant” and that “no one has been given the benefit of it since 1910”.

Why states can regulate polygamy

The capacity of the state to legislate on this difficulty stems from the authorized place that polygamy is not a basic tenet of faith.

In 2015, the Supreme Court dominated that polygamy was not an integral a part of Islam and that the state had the ability to reform such practices. The bench, comprising Justices T.S. Thakur and A.Ok. Goel, noticed that “what was protected under Article 25 [of the Constitution – which guarantees the fundamental right to freedom of religion] was the religious faith and not a practice which may run counter to public order, health or morality.”

The subsequent state to outlaw polygamy could also be Gujarat. The state authorities in February arrange a committee to assess the necessity to have a standard civil code and to put together a draft UCC. The committee is headed by Justice Ranjana Desai, who had additionally helmed an analogous panel in Uttarakhand that had ready the draft UCC there.

In 2015, the Gujarat High Court had referred to as for the abolition of polygamy amongst Muslims. In an order, Justice J.B. Pardiwala, who is presently a Supreme Court choose, referred to as the apply in opposition to the Constitution and “heinously patriarchal”.