Kochi: Multiple marriages by a Muslim man cannot be accepted if he doesn’t have the financial capacity to maintain his wives, the Kerala High Court said.
Justice P V Kunhikrishnan made the observation while hearing a 39-year-old woman’s petition seeking monthly maintenance of Rs 10,000 from her 46-year-old husband, a blind man who claimed he survived primarily on alms. A family court earlier dismissed her plea, saying that the husband, who earns his livelihood through begging, could not be directed to pay maintenance.
Justice Kunhikrishnan used a satirical Malayalam phrase, which can be translated to ‘Don’t put your hand into a begging bowl’, to bring forth the futility of expecting sustenance from someone dependent on alms. Noting that the husband, described as a beggar by the petitioner, was “not a saint” either as despite his blindness, he was allegedly threatening his second wife that he intended to contract a third marriage.
The high court recorded that the respondent had a notional income of about Rs 25,000 from various sources, including begging, while continuing to live with his first wife. The judge expressed disbelief on being told by the wife that her blind husband regularly assaulted her, News18 reported.
Stressing that the Muslim personal law did not justify such behaviour, the judge said, “A person who has no capacity to maintain a second or third wife cannot marry again, even as per the customary law of Muslims.”
The judge went on to cite verses from the Quran, saying that the holy text propagates monogamy, and allows polygamy only as an exception.
“If a Muslim man can give justice to his first wife, second wife, third wife and fourth wife, then only marriage more than once is permissible,” the judge said, adding that most Muslims follow monogamy.
“It is the duty of the state to protect the destitute wives who are victims of polygamy in the Muslim community,” the court observed.
The judge directed the Social Welfare Department to counsel the respondent, with assistance from qualified counsellors and religious leaders.
