'Priest Who Conducted Ceremony Need Not Be Examined To Prove Marriage': Calcutta High Court Sets Aside Acquittal In Bigamy Case

The Calcutta High Court has held that insisting on the examination of the priest who conducted the second day's marriage ceremonies to prove a Hindu marriage stretches the standard of proof "beyond rational, logical and legal limits." Setting aside a 30-year-old acquittal in a bigamy case, the Court observed that once several witnesses consistently testify to the marriage and surrounding circumstances establish that the parties lived as husband and wife, the absence of one priest's testimony cannot defeat the prosecution.A Division Bench of Justices Rajasekhar Mantha and Ananya Bandyopadhyay made the observation while convicting a former West Bengal Police employee under Section 495 of the Indian Penal Code for concealing his subsisting first marriage before marrying the complainant."To, therefore, insist on the production of the priest, who conducted the ceremonies on the second day of marriage and to hold that the second marriage with the appellant has not been proved merely because the second priest was not summoned and examined is to stretch the degree of proof beyond rational, logical and legal limits," the Court observed.The appeal challenged a 1996 judgment of the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Raghunathpur, Purulia, acquitting the accused of the offence under Section 495 IPC.According to the complainant, she married the accused according to Hindu rites in August 1984. After initially residing at her matrimonial home, she later shifted to the accused's official quarters at Kolaghat, where she found another woman, Manabi Roy, and a child living with him. Although the accused claimed the woman was the wife of a colleague, the complainant subsequently discovered that he had married Manabi Roy under the Special Marriage Act in January 1983 and had concealed that marriage from her.The trial court acquitted the accused after holding, among other things, that the prosecution had failed to prove the second marriage because the priest who performed the ceremonies on the second day of the wedding had not been examined.The High Court found this approach wholly unsustainable. It observed that there is a natural presumption that where a marriage is performed according to Hindu rites and customs, the customary ceremonies would ordinarily have been completed. The Bench noted that several witnesses had consistently deposed to attending the marriage, and the complainant was thereafter taken to the accused's parental home and accepted as his lawful wife.The Court also relied on letters produced in evidence, including correspondence from the accused's father acknowledging the complainant as his only lawful daughter-in-law, and letters exchanged between the parties that reflected a subsisting marital relationship.Rejecting the trial court's reasoning, the Bench held that the prosecution was not required to produce every possible witness to establish ceremonies that stood sufficiently proved through other reliable evidence.The Court further found that the trial judge had placed excessive emphasis on technical deficiencies regarding proof of the accused's earlier marriage as well. It observed that although the marriage certificate under the Special Marriage Act could ideally have been formally proved through the marriage registrar, the defence had never disputed the existence of the earlier marriage during cross-examination. Departmental proceedings initiated by the West Bengal Police had also found the accused guilty of bigamy.The Bench also rejected the finding that the complaint suffered from unexplained delay, observing that offences under Section 495 IPC are not barred by limitation under Section 468 CrPC. It added that women, particularly in semi-urban areas, may require considerable courage before initiating criminal proceedings arising from matrimonial deception.Holding that both essential ingredients of Section 495 IPC—a subsisting first marriage and deliberate concealment of that marriage—stood proved beyond reasonable doubt, the High Court set aside the acquittal and convicted the accused.Considering that the accused was over 75 years old, the Court sentenced him to three years' simple imprisonment and directed him to pay ₹1 lakh as compensation to the complainant, with a further one year's simple imprisonment in default of payment.Case Title: Smt. Shasthi Chatterjee v. Sri Jibananda ChatterjeeCase No.: CRA 19 of 1997Click here to read order

'Priest Who Conducted Ceremony Need Not Be Examined To Prove Marriage': Calcutta High Court Sets Aside Acquittal In Bigamy Case

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Srinjoy Das

'Priest Who Conducted Ceremony Need Not Be Examined To Prove Marriage': Calcutta High Court Sets Aside Acquittal In Bigamy Case

Srinjoy Das

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Srinjoy Das

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