Legal Advice

Is it possible to divorce the first wife for legalising the second marriage?

Query

Is it possible to divorce the first wife for legalising the second marriage? I am male married in june 2008 but due to her nature I had a second marriage in may 2009. Without informing that I was married but my first wife filed a case for my second marriage in 2010. My second marriage was declared as null and void in 2013 but as I still live with my second wife and my first wife lived at my parental house.  My first wife has taken all the money and everything after my parents have died and went back to her brother's house recently. Now I want to file a divorce case. Can I do so?

Advice

Your second marriage is void under Section 11 of the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 (HMA) because your first marriage was subsisting at the time of solemnisation of second marriage. Section 5 HMA explicitly makes that no spouse of the first marriage should be alive at the time of solemnisation of the second marriage. 

Your second marriage has been declared by the competent court null and void. It proves that you have committed bigamy. You are a guilty party hence, you cannot seek divorce on your own fault. If your wife agrees to get separated from you then you should convince her to file divorce case. 

In the current scenario you cannot invoke Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act for divorce. 

Shivendra Pratap Singh

Advocate

High Court Lucknow

Marriage

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