Supreme Court empowers bigamy victims

A woman need not give proof of her husband’s second marriage while charging him with bigamy, the Supreme Court (SC) has said. Instead, it’s the man who has to prove to the court that he is innocent.

In criminal cases, courts won’t quash the charge sheet if the husband merely says that allegations are false. “It has to be borne in mind that while considering the application for quashing the charge sheet, the allegations made in the first information report (FIR) and the material collected during the course of the investigation are required to be considered,” a bench of justices DK Jain and CK Prasad said.

“Truthfulness of the allegation made by the aggrieved wife is not fit to be gone into at this stage, as it is always a matter of trial. Whether essential ceremonies of the marriage were gone into or not is also a matter of trial,” the apex court said.

The court said this while allowing an appeal by K Neelavani, who was challenging a Madras high court (HC) order quashing the charge sheet against her husband S K Siva Kumar under sections 406 (breach of trust) and 494 (bigamy-second marriage).

Kumar had married Bharathi and fathered her child while he was still married to Neelavani. Police filed a charge sheet against Kumar but the high court quashed the charges.

“We’re of the opinion that HC erred in saying that the charge sheet does not reveal the ingredients constituting the offences under sections 494 and 406,’’ the apex court said.