Second marriage during the lifetime of a spouse is void under the Hindu Marriage Act; the Chakma community's customs do not exempt individuals from Indian Penal Code provisions against bigamy.

JUDGMENT

1. By dint of this petition filed under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C, 1973, the petitioner urge this court to quash the order passed by the Ld. Sessions Judge, Gomati District, Udaipur, Tripura in Criminal Revision 01 of 2022 dated 12.04.2022 in connection with case No.PRC(WP) 24 of 2021 under Sections 498A/494 of IPC pending before the Ld. Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Amarpur, Gomati Tripura.

2. It is a case of the petitioner that in the year 2005, the complainant got married with the petitioner herein and thereafter, since 2017, the torture upon the complainant started and on 12.10.2020 the complainant came to know from a source that the petitioner herein is getting married to a lady namely Smt. Paheli Tripura and after going there with some police personnel she found that the petitioner herein performed marriage as per their Chakma customary laws. The said complaint was filed before the officer in charge, Natun Bazar Police station and the OC of the police station treated the same as FIR and registered the case as Natun Bazar PS No.35 of 2020 dated 12.10.2020. After completion of the investigation, the Investigating Officer of the case filed charge sheet before the Ld. Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Amarpur, Gomati Tripura, Under Section 498A/494/212 of the IPC against the petitioner as well as the lady namely Smt. Paheli Tripura. The petitioner made an application for discharge under Section 2 27 of Cr.P.C before the Ld. Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Amarpur, Gomati Tripura and the same was rejected. Being aggrieved and dissatisfied, the petitioner herein approached the Ld. Sessions Judge, Gomati Tripura vide Criminal Revision petition No.01 of 2022 and the Ld. Sessions Judge was pleased to discharge the petitioner herein from Section 2 12 of IPC but directed the Ld. Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate, Amarpur, Gomati Tripura to frame charge under Section 498A and 494 of IPC against the petitioner herein vide order dated 12.04.2022 Being dissatisfied with the order, the petitioner approached this Hon'ble Court and hence this petition.

3. During the course of the argument Mr. Biswas, learned senior counsel for the petitioner submitted that he is not pressing the case for quashing of 498A of the IPC rather he is before this court seeking discharge of Section 494 of the IPC directed to be framed against the petitioner by the order dated 12.04.2022 by the court of the Sessions Judge, Gomati District, Udaipur.

4. On the other hand, the respondent no.2 has filed a complaint before the Officer-in-Charge, Natun Bazar Police Station on 12.10.2020 against the petitioner stating that the petitioner has married one Paheli Tripura and created trouble for the respondent No.2. Through her said complaint, the complainant (the respondent No.2 herein) further contended as follows:

Today 12.10.2020 AD, after getting an information as source, I went to Natun Bazar PS and Jatanbari Out Post. There, I requested the OC of the PS along with the police personnel I went to the place of occurrence and saw the accused No.1 (the petitioner herein) and accused No.2 performed marriage as per the Chakma customary law. The accused person No.1 illegally married the accused No.2, who is a Bangladeshi National. There are present Bangladeshi national and some of the villages and family members of the accused No.1 wrongfully restrained us. When I enquired about the accused No.2, the family members of the Accused No.1 assaulted me physically and outraged my modesty in front of the public. The accused No.2 and the other 5 nos. of the Bangladeshi nationals are international drug mafia. They used to sell drugs in different parts of India.

5. Mr. Biswas, learned senior cou