DIVORCE DILEMMA.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 857, 8 November 1916, Page 6

DIVORCE DILEMMA.

INDIAN BARRISTER WANTS SECOND ENGLISH BRIDE.

A knotty point of divorce law was discussed in a King's Bench Divisional Court before the Lord Chief Justice and Justices Darling and Bray yesterday, says a recent English paper. T>r. Mir-Anwaruddin. a member of the English Bar. and a Mohammedan, claimed that he was entitled to marry an English woman after having divorced his first wife—also an Englishwoman —in accordance with tlie Mohammedan law. The Superintendent Registrar of Marriages at Hammersmith declined to issue a certificate and license to enable him Ito marry a lady named Violet Ling, holding that a former marriage to Ruby : Wood in March, HU.'l, was a lawful impediment. A rule nisi was then obtained by the doctor, commanding the Registrar to issue a certificate. Mr Justice Darling: We are told in effect that the applicant, by his own law, that he recognises, has a right to have four wives, lie might some day ask for four licenses and marry four Knglish women, one after another or altogether. (Laughter). Dr. Mir-Anwaruddin said his first wife left him five weeks after marriage. She refused to go to India with him, land he got a decree of restitution from | the Civil Court at Madias. I'mler English law he was not domiciled here, and he could not obtain a divorce; under Indian law, because he was not a Christian he could not get a divorce. Therefore, he took the only course that was left open, which was under the Mohammedan law. Mr Justice Bargrave Deane Iliad held that the marriage had ceased | to exist. Lord Reading said that the Court was • not bound by a decision of Mr Justice ! Deane. They had wider considerations i to discuss. j Mr Justice Darling pointed out that he was only in the position that everyone was before the. Divorce Act was I passed. But probably the second lady | would marry him and take the eonseIquences. That was what women comj inonly- did. Judgment was reserved.