Court says a Muslim man can have multiple wives on one condition, ‘Quran asks men to first consider…’

A Muslim man can marry multiple times as long as he treats all his wives equally, Allahabad High Court recently observed. It pointed out the offence of polygamy as it conditionally permitted under the Quran for a "valid reason", but is often "misused" by men for "selfish reasons".

A single-judge bench led by Justice Arun Kumar Singh Deswal made these comments while hearing a request to cancel the chargesheet, cognisance, and summons order against a man, Furkan, issued by a court in Moradabad.

The case began in 2020 when a woman accused Furkan of marrying her without revealing that he was already married. She also claimed that he raped her during their marriage. Based on her complaint, a case was registered at the Moradabad police station, and summons were issued to Furkan and two others.

What the court said?

The Allahabad High Court noted that the right to religious freedom under Article 25 of the Indian Constitution is not absolute.

“This Court would further like to observe that Article 25 of the Constitution of India gives religious freedom to profess, practice and propagate, which also includes external overt acts of individual as per his religious faith, but this right is subject to public order, morality and health and other provisions of Part-III of the Constitution. Therefore, religious liberty under Article 25 is not unfettered and can be regulated by the State.”

Justice Deshwal said polygamy finds mention in the scripture only once, and there is a historical reason why it was allowed, but men have often used it for selfish purposes.

“There was a time in history when a large number of women were widowed, and children were orphaned in primitive tribal tussles in Arabs. The Muslims suffered heavy casualties in defending the nascent Islamic community in Medina. It was under such circumstances that the Quran allowed conditional polygamy to protect orphans and their mothers from exploitation,” the Bench observed.

It said that polygamy in the holy book is conditional.

“…it is clear that the Quran asks men first consider taking care of the orphans and only when they think they may not be able to do justice to the orphans’ interests while staying in isolation, should they consider marrying their widowed mothers, on the condition that the new family would be dealt with justly on par with the existing one.”

The Allahabad High Court, in its 18-page judgement, said that Furkan's second marriage is valid as both his wives are Muslim.

The court has listed the matter for the next hearing on May 26.