India Legal News: Muslim Man's Marriage to Hindu Woman Declared Void

In India, Hindu-Muslim marriages evoke controversy, interest and curiosity from across the society. Traditional beliefs, mistaken prejudices and the fear of flouting social norms prevent many young Indians from taking the ‘drastic step’ of marrying a person of another religion. On 12^th May 2010, the Allahabad High Court held that the marriage of a Muslim man to a Hindu girl as void. The Division Bench comprising Justice Rajesh Chandra and Justice Vinod Prasad held that a Muslim man’s second marriage would be null and void when he abandons his first wife and the children, who are born from this first marriage.

India Legal News: Muslim Husband Did Not Reveal His First Marriage to Hindu Girl

The Hindu-Muslim marriage we are discussing here revolves around the marriage of the petitioner, Dilbar Habib Siddiqui with Khushboo Jaiswal (a Hindu woman), held on December 29, 2009.

The case was filed by Sunita Jaiswal, Khusboo’s mother who alleged that her daughter had been kidnapped by a Muslim man named Siddiqui, who had forced Khushboo to marry him. 

The mother stated that her daughter was a minor at the time of the marriage. Saddiqui, on the other hand, produced Khushboo’s high school certificate to prove that she was not a minor and that she had married him voluntarily.

What led to the complexity in this case was that Siddiqui already had a wife and three children. This fact had been hidden from Khushboo. During the time when the case was being heard in court, Saddiqui’s first wife appeared in court and alleged that he had abandoned her and their three children.

At this point, after hearing the parties, the court said that Khushboo had not mentioned whether she knew about Siddiqui’s first marriage or not. The marriage between Siddiqui and Khushboo was held as void. The court ordered swift investigation to be carried out pertaining to the challenged FIR based on Khushboo’s mother’s statement. The Nari Niketan authorities, where Khushboo has been kept, were directed by the court to hand her over to her parents.

India Legal News: For a valid Muslim marriage, both spouses have to be Muslims.

Many girls run off with boys when they are madly in love, hoping to begin a happy-for-ever after type of marriage. In movies, it reaps blockbusters but in reality, such acts of impulsiveness become disasters that can ruin a girl’s life and happiness.

The Allahabad High Court Division Bench comprising the two judges quoted from a verse in the Holy Quran which says, "Do not marry unbelieving women until they believe... Nor marry your girls to unbelievers until they believe."