Case – Lily Thomas v. Union of India, 2000
Fact – A Hindu man, already having a subsisting marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, with a Hindu woman, embraced Islam and got married under Islamic rites. For all practical purposes they continued to be Hindus as was indicated from electoral records, records of the maternity hospital where a child was born to them and visa application forms. According to the complainant wife, the husband had only feigned conversion to solemnise a second marriage.
Issue – Whether a Hindu converted to the ‘Muslim’ faith without any real change of belief and merely with a view to avoid an earlier marriage or enter into a second marriage, committed the offence of bigamy?Observation & Judgement:
- The court clarified further that the status of the earlier marriage of a Hindu converted to Islam remains unaffected, and the first wife can proceed against him under the provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Indian Penal Code, 1860, if he enters into another marriage.
- The court considered the effect of the second marriage qua the first marriage, which continued to subsist in spite of conversion of the husband to Islam, for the limited purpose of ascertaining his criminal liability under section 17 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 read with section 494 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
- It held that if a husband marries a second wife under some other religion after converting to that religion, the offence of bigamy pleaded by the Hindu wife would have to be investigated and tried in accordance with the provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, viz, the law under which the first marriage was solemnised.
- It held that if a husband marries a second wife under some other religion after converting to that religion, the offence of bigamy pleaded by the Hindu wife would have to be investigated and tried in accordance with the provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, viz, the law under which the first marriage was solemnised.
