Conversion for bigamy illegal: SC

A married Hindu man embracing Islam in order to marry again will be liable to prosecution under the Hindu Marriage Act and the Indian Penal Code, the Supreme Court pronounced today.

Bringing the curtain down on a controversy ranging for nearly a decade, a division bench, comprising Justices S Saghir Ahmad and R P Sethi, ruled that such a marriage will be void.

It said: "A person who mockingly adopts another religion where plurality of marriage is permitted so as to renounce the previous marriage and desert the wife cannot be permitted to take advantage of his exploitation as religion is not a commodity to be exploited."

The court said that if the first marriage was solemnised under the Hindu Marriage Act, the "husband" or the "wife" by mere conversion to another religion could not bring to an end the marital ties.

The court's decision followed a petition by Susmita Ghosh, alleging that her husband, G C Ghosh (Mohd Karim Ghazi), embraced Islam to marry again without dissolution of the first marriage.

In her petition filed in the Supreme Court in 1992, Ms Ghosh prayed for the court's directions to ban polygamy marriages by Hindus and non-Hindus after embracing Islam. The petition also demanded suitable amendments to the Hindu Marriage Act to prohibit the practice of polygamy.

Several other petitions raising similar questions were also tagged with the pleas of Ms Ghosh. The petitions sought the court's intervention to decide the question: whether the second marriage of a non- Muslim, who has become a Muslim only to marry another woman without any real change in his belief, would be void.

Referring to the court's previous judgement indicating the need for a legislation for a "uniform civil code," the bench made it clear that the Supreme Court had not issued "any direction for the enactment of a common civil code."

Justice Ahmad said that the Additional Solicitor General, who represented the Centre, has stated that "the Government of India did not intend to take any action in this regard on the basis of that judgement alone." The court held that change of religion "does not dissolve the marriage performed under the Hindu Marriage Act between two Hindus."

Quoting several decisions of the court, Justice Ahmad said that "mere conversion does not bring to an end the marital ties unless a decree for divorce on that ground is obtained from the court."

The bench said that a Hindu husband would face trial under the Hindu Marriage Act and IPC if he married second time even after his conversion to another religion during the life-time of his spouse. "It is under this Act (the Hindu Marriage Act) that it has to be seen whether the husband, who has married a second wife, has committed the offence of bigamy or not."
 

Back                          Top