Jharkhand High Court Rules SMA Prevails Over Personal Law in Restitution Case

The Jharkhand High Court held that a husband who married under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, could not invoke Muslim personal law to seek restitution of conjugal rights.

The petitioner contended that his personal law permitted multiple marriages and that the respondent had been aware of these rights. 

The High Court rejected the argument and clarified that once parties registered their marriage under the Act, the statutory framework exclusively governed all matrimonial rights and obligations.

The Court noted that the petitioner had also suppressed an earlier marriage and a child, and upheld the Family Court’s dismissal of the restitution petition on grounds of concealment and lack of legal merit.

[Md Akil Alam v Tumpa Chakravarty]