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India Bans Polygamy for Civil Servants
2-10-2015
India’s Supreme Court has banned Muslim men from having multiple wives arguing that it is not an integral part of Islam, giving state authorities to fire any civil servant who breaks the role.
"What was protected under Article 25 (right to practice and propagate any religion) was the religious faith and not a practice which may run counter to public order, health or morality," said a bench of Justices T S Thakur and A K Goel, Times of India reported on Tuesday, February 10.
“Polygamy was not integral part of religion and monogamy was a reform within the power of the State under Article 25.”
Justifying the ruling, the court said that Article 25 protects religious faith, not a practice.
The court also upheld the decision of the government of Uttar Pradesh to fire an employee after he tried to marry a second woman while the previous marriage was still in place.
In this case Khursheed Ahmad Khan, employed as irrigation supervisor, had married Anjum Begum during existence of first marriage with Sabina Begum.
The man was fired later by the state government which initiated proceedings and later removed him from service for failure to take prior permission for second marriage as was required under rule 29 of the conduct rules.
In Islam, marriage is a sacred bond that brings together a man and a woman by virtue of the teachings of the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
Each partner in this sacred relationship must treat the other properly and with respect.
Islam sees polygamy as a realistic answer to some social woes like adulterous affairs and lamentable living conditions of a widow or a divorced woman.
A Muslim man who seeks a second or a third wife should, however, make sure that he would treat them all on an equal footing.
The Noble Qur'an says that though polygamy is lawful it is very hard for a man to guarantee such fairness.
Muslims account for 160 million of India's 1.1 billion people, the world's third-largest Islamic population after those of Indonesia and Pakistan.
In India, divorce and marriage issues are dominated by All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), the single largest religious body consisting of scholars of different schools of thought.
In May 2012, Darul Uloom Deoband in Uttar Pradesh issued a fatwa stating that marrying more than once made it “hard to provide equal justice to two wives in the Indian custom”.
The fatwa was issued in response to a query by a man who wanted advice on marrying twice.
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