Conversion Just For The Purpose Of Marriage Not Acceptable: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court said during a ruling that religious conversion just for the purpose of marriage is not acceptable. The court made this statement while dismissing a writ petition filed by a married couple seeking police protection three months after their marriage. 

The woman who filed the petition was a Muslim by birth but had converted to Hinduism to get married as per Hindu rituals. On September 23, Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi passed an order stating that keeping in view the facts and circumstances, “this court is not inclined to interfere in the matter under Article 226 of Constitution of India,” reported The Indian Express. 

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The HC observed that the first petitioner was Muslim by birth and had converted her religion from Muslim to Hindu on 29.6.2020. The petitioners celebrated their marriage according to Hindu rites and rituals on 31.7.2020, which clearly indicated that the conversion had taken place only for the purpose of marriage. 

The high court also referred to the 2014 order in Noor Jahan Begum, alias Anjali Mishra case. The court had dismissed a batch of writ petitions which were filed by a married couple seeking protection. In this case, the girl converted from Hinduism to Islam religion, following which the couple had performed Nikah.

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“The conversion of religion without any knowledge of Islam or faith and belief in Islam and merely for the purpose of Marriage (Nikah) is valid?” the court had said about the case then, reported the Hindustan Times. 

The court had then said that the conversion of religion girls' religion to Islam without their faith and belief in Islam and at the instance of the boys, solely for the purpose of marriage," can't be counted as valid. "These marriages (Nikah) are against the mandate in Sura II Ayat 221 of the Holy Quran."

In 2019, A 35-year-old Muslim man converted to Hinduism and married a Hindu girl in Chhattisgarh. The man reportedly told the Supreme Court that he had no intention to re-convert to Islam.

He said in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, “I found affinity to Hindu religion and voluntarily accepted and embraced the religion while converting from my religion by birth, Islam, after following the due procedure under the law.”

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The man revealed that the couple met at a college in Raipur. Subsequently, they became friends and fell in love. The couple then decided to get married in 2018. As per the report, he also revealed that a marriage registration certificate was issued to him on April 17, 2018, where his pre-conversion name was printed. 

Image Credit: Alamy

Sagrika Giri is an intern with SheThePeople.TV.