The Madras High Court has held that a woman who unknowingly marries a man who is already married cannot be prosecuted for bigamy, because Section 82 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) punishes only the person who has a living spouse and remarries — not the person they deceive into marriage.
Justice N. Ramesh, ruling on an anticipatory bail plea in Rajalakshmi v. State (Crl OP No. 22231 of 2026), was dealing with a case registered by an All Women Police Station on a complaint filed by the man's first wife. The petitioner, the alleged "second wife," said she had no idea of the man's earlier, subsisting marriage at the time she married him, and that the fact had been deliberately hidden from her. She faced charges under Sections 82, 85, 49, 296(b) and 351(2) BNS.
Only the Bigamist Is the Offender
Examining the text of Section 82, the Court held that its offender is defined as the person who already has a living spouse and enters into a further marriage. A woman who is herself unmarried and marries such a person without knowledge of the subsisting marriage does not become an offender under the provision merely by marrying him.
"On the plain language of the provision, the offender is the person who already has a living spouse; a person who is herself unmarried and marries such a person, without knowledge of the subsisting marriage, does not thereby become an offender under Section 82."
The Court also quashed the cruelty charge under Section 85 BNS against her, reasoning that she could not be treated as a "relative of the husband" by blood, marriage or adoption, and that both women in the case had effectively been deceived by the same man rather than one victimising the other. Anticipatory bail was granted, subject to conditions.
The order, reported as 2026 LiveLaw (Mad) 445, offers clarity on a fact pattern that recurs often in bigamy prosecutions, where the second spouse is frequently kept in the dark about an existing marriage.