HC declines to order disciplinary proceeding for bigamy

The Madras High Court today declined to order departmental/disciplinary proceedings against a university Assistant Registrar for alleged bigamy on a complaint from his estranged wife who is fighting a divorce case in a family court.
Justice D Hariparanthaman in his order said "I am not inclined to issue direction to the department to take disciplinary action in the purely matrimonial dispute by invoking the extraordinary jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution."
An Assistant Registrar of Indira Gandhi National Open University in Raipur, M Vijayakumar, was married to the woman who gave the petition in October 1999. I

In 2014, he moved a family court in Puducherry seeking divorce. In April this year, the woman lodged a complaint with police alleging that Vijayakumar had married again and hence he had committed the offence of bigamy.
The woman sought criminal and departmental action based on her complaint.
Dismissing the petition, Justice Hariparanthaman said that if she is aggrieved by the conduct of her husband in getting married while the marriage with her is subsisting, then she could very well initiate proceedings before a criminal court.
The department cannot initiate criminal action for bigamous marriage, the judge said, adding, the department could be slow in taking action in complaints regarding matrimonial disputes. Stating that disciplinary action could not be ordered in matrimonial dispute related complaints, the judge rejected the writ petition saying "I find no merit in the petition.