IT News
Imphal, Nov 30,
Photo of acceptance ceremony (Loukhatpa) of the IPR and PWD Minister Thongam Bishwajit along with his newly married wife by the bride family at Nagamapal Singjubung Leirak today went viral in social networking site. The photo showed the Minister who already had two daughters and a wife being accepted as husband and wife with one Sorokhaibam Rebika. Whether the Minister married the new wife after completing formalities for legal divorce with his first wife Junreiwon popularly known as Junjun is yet to be known, but for reason best known to Mr. Biswajit, he openly married the new wife for the second time.
When Tom, Dick or Harry married for the second or third time nobody cares but when a top politician who is also having important portfolio married a second wife then it is natural that everybody wants to know about it.
Articles 494 and 495 of the Indian Penal Code of 1860, prohibited polygamy for the Christians. In 1955, the Hindu Marriage Act was drafted, which prohibited marriage of Hindu whose spouse was still living. Thus Polygamy became illegal in India in 1956, uniformly for all of its citizens except for Hindus in Goa where bigamy is legal, and for Muslims, who are permitted to have four wives.
In a polygamous Hindu marriage is null and void.
While the punishment specified in Articles 494 and 495 is applicable, it is rare if the first spouse does not have an objection.
But the matter is different if he is a legislature of government employee. There are certain provisions for punishment as per the law of the land. As per Section 494 of the Indian Penal Code bigamy is a non-cognizable offence, bailable and compoundable with the permission of the court. It is punishable with imprisonment up to 7 years or fine or both.
Bollywood star and Lok Sabha member Dharmendra was already married to Prakash Kaur when he married actress Hema Malini in 1980. While it was reported that he had converted to Islam for the sake of the marriage, he denied getting converted.
Uttar Pradesh politician, Mulayam Singh Yadav married twice. His first wife was Malti Devi, whose son is Akhilesh Yadav (born 1973), former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Malti Devi died in May 2003. Yadav’s second wife is Sadhna Gupta Yadav, with whom he has a son named Prateek Yadav (born 1988). Prateek manages land holdings of the Yadav family. Mulayam’s second wife was not acknowledged until February 2007, when the relationship was admitted in India’s Supreme Court in a property dispute.
Ram Vilas Paswan married Rajkumari Devi in 1960s. In 1983, he had married Reena Sharma, an airhostess and a Punjabi Hindu from Amritsar. In 2014 he disclosed that he had divorced her in 1981, after his Lok Sabha nomination papers were challenged. He has two daughters from his first wife, Usha and Asha. In the three cases, there was no political or legal impact. In 2014 supporters of BJP published a poster ‘desh premi patni premi’ suggesting that Digvijaya Singh had two wives, although he was only in a relationship with the second woman while the first wife was alive.
Legally the second wife of a Hindu would be a mistress, although religiously and socially she may be considered a wife. The law in India allows mistresses to be presumed wives unless proven otherwise.
