PERMISSION OF THE FIRST WIFE DOES NOT LEGALISE OR VALIDATE HE SECOND MARRIAGE UNDER HINDU MARRIAGE ACT: PATNA HIGH COURT. Shajeeda Tajdeen BASICS OF LAW Thu, Dec 12, 2019, at ,09:49 AM A division bench of the Patna High Court comprising of Justices Prabhat Kumar Singh and Hemant Kumar Srivastava, has held that the assent or permission of the first wife does not pass on any right to a man to solemnize second marriage during the subsistence of the first wife. Brief of the case: The appellant was an Assistant Sub Inspector in Central Reserve Police Force at Imphal. He had solemnized his second marriage with one SunitaUpadhyay (who was working as a constable in C.R.P.F) during the lifetime of his first marriage of the appellant. Subsequently, his first wife, Ranju Singh had filed a complaint based on which a departmental proceeding was initiated against the appellant. On completion of the departmental proceeding the competent authority held the appellant was guilty and thus he was dismissed from continuing his service. The appellant had filed for revision of the said order, but to no avail his revision application was also dismissed. Hereafter, the counsel for the appellant stated that though the departmental proceeding was initiated on the complaint made by the first wife of the appellant eventually, in the course of the proceeding, the first wife of the appellant filed an affidavit mentioning that the appellant hadsolemnized his marriage with SunitaUpadhyay with her permission and consent. But the counsel for the respondent straight away denied the submissions of the appellant and stated that the Disciplinary Authority had taken into consideration all the aspects of the matter and that the appellant had submitted forged documents during the course of the departmental proceedings for which a different charge was framed against him. After hearing the contentions from both the sides the Honourable Court dismissed the appeal, by stating that even if it assumed that the first wife of the appellant had given her sanction to the second marriage, this sanction or consent does not by any chance authorise or permit the husband to solemnize his second marriage during the continuance of the first marriage as per the Hindu Marriage Act. The court backed its decision by highlighting section 5(i) of the Hindu Marriage Act, which reads as follows: Condition for a Hindu Marriage.- A marriage may be solemnized between any two Hindus, if the following conditions are fulfilled, namely: neither party has a spouse living at the time of the marriage; Lastly, the court stated that; "So far as contentions advanced on behalf of appellant is concerned, even if, it is presumed that the first wife of appellant had given her consent for second marriage then also, the aforesaid consent of first wife of the appellant does not give right to appellantto solemnize second marriage during lifetime of first wife."