Bengaluru: A woman married under Special Marriage Act (SMA) cannot claim the legal status of wife if her husband already has a living spouse, even if his personal law permits polygamy, the high court has ruled.Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum made the observation while dismissing a petition filed by Ballari resident Meena Kumari in a partition suit.Meena married Mohammad Rafiq under SMA in 2008, and they had a daughter. After Rafiq died in 2024, she learnt that he was a defendant in a pending partition suit. She sought to be impleaded as his legal representative along with her daughter, claiming to be his second wife.The trial court initially allowed her application, but Rafiq’s first wife, Fiza Begum, and others challenged the order before the high court. The matter was remanded to the trial court, which, on Aug 18, 2025, rejected Meena’s claim while permitting her daughter to be brought on record as Rafiq’s legal representative.Meena again approached the high court, contending that her marriage was valid because it had been registered under SMA.Rejecting the plea, Justice Magadum noted that Section 4 of SMA makes a marriage valid only if neither party has a living spouse at the time of marriage. A marriage registered under the Act while an earlier marriage is still subsisting is void and does not confer the legal status of husband or wife, the court held.The judge observed that although Muslim personal law permits a man to have more than one wife, that principle applies only to marriages governed by personal law. SMA is a secular, self-contained law that mandates monogamy as a condition for a valid marriage. Holding that Meena could not claim the status of Rafiq’s widow in the absence of a valid marriage under the Act, the HC upheld the trial court’s order while allowing their daughter to continue as his legal representative.
