The public interest litigation filed by 84-year-old

lawyer, Clarence Pais, has sought a direction to all criminal courts in the country to "recognize a decree of annulment of marriage granted by the Ecclesiastical courts/tribunal". He said that if the dissolution of marriage by such courts is not held valid, then thousands of Catholic Christian couples would be accused of bigamy. If the criminal courts while considering prosecution for bigamy reject the application of Canon Law as the personal law of the Catholics, a very serious result will follow and hundreds of spouses under the second marriage will have to face prosecution, jail and fine, the petition said. The petitioner has also stated that the Catholic Christian community had made several representations to the Government which did not give any favourable response. "The Catholic marriage take place in a Catholic church and in the event of either party seeking nullity of marriage, application lies under the code of Canon Law before the Canonical court functioning in their diocese," he contended.