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Showing contexts for: valid second marriage in Ravinder Kumar And Anr vs State Of Punjab on 31 August, 2001Matching Fragments
The essential ingredients of the offence under Section 494 IPC are (I) the accused must have contracted the first marriage; (ii) whilst the first marriage was subsisting, the accused must have contracted a second marriage; and (iii) both the marriages must be valid in the sense that necessary ceremonies governing the parties must have been performed.
Admittedly, the marriage of the appellant with the respondent, entered into by them on 6.9.1970, was subsisting at the time of the alleged second marriage. The Metropolitan Magistrate held that an important ceremony, namely, "Saptapadi" had not been performed and therefore, the second marriage was not a valid marriage and no offence was committed by the appellant . The learned Single Judge reversing this decision in appeal held that the parties are governed by Section 7-A of the Hindu Marriage Act as the parties are Hindus residing within the State of Tamil Nadu. It was held that there was a valid second marriage and the appellant was guilty of the offence of bigamy.
It is undoubtedly true that the second marriage should be proved to be a valid marriage according to the personal law of the parties, though such second marriage is void under Section 17 of the Hindu Marriage Act having been performed when the earlier marriage is subsisting. The validity of the second marriage is to be proved by the prosecution by satisfactory evidence.
In Kanwal Ram & Ors. vs. H.P. Administration AIR 1966 SC 614 this Court held that in a bigamy case, the second marriage is to be proved and the essential ceremony required for a valid marriage should have been performed. It was held that mere admission on the part of the accused may not be sufficient.
1979 (3) SCC 80 [Lingari Obulamma vs. L. Venkata Reddy & Ors.] was a case where the High Court held that two essential ceremonies of a valid marriage, namely "datta homa" and "sapathapathi" [taking seven steps around the sacred fire] were not performed and, therefore, the marriage was void in the eye of law. This finding was upheld by this Court. The appellant therein contended that among the "Reddy" community in Andhra Pradesh, there was no such custom of performing "datta homa" and "saptapadi", but the High Court held that under the Hindu Law these two ceremonies were essential to constitute a valid marriage and rejected the plea of the appellant on the ground that there was no evidence to prove that any of these two ceremonies had been performed. The finding of the High Court was upheld by this Court that there was no evidence to prove a second valid marriage.
In 1991 Supp. (2) SCC 616 [Santi Deb Berma vs. Kanchan Prava Devi] also, the appellant was acquitted by this Court as there was no proof of a valid marriage as the ceremonial "Saptapadi" was not performed. This Court noticed in this case also that the High Court proceeded on the footing that according to the parties, performance of "Saptapadi" is one of the essential ceremonies to constitute a valid marriage.
Another decision on this point is 1994 (5) SCC 545 [Laxmi Devi vs. Satya Narayan & Ors.] wherein, this Court, relying on an earlier decision in [1971] 1 SCC 864 (supra), held that there was no proof that "Saptapadi" was performed and therefore, there was no valid second marriage and that no offence of bigamy was committed.