Conversion For Sake Of Marriage Not Acceptable: Allahabad High Court

Lucknow: Religious conversion - just for the purpose of marriage - is not acceptable, the Allahabad High Court said referring to an earlier order as it refused to interfere in a petition by a couple, seeking protection three months after their marriage. The woman who filed the petition is a Muslim by birth but had converted to Hinduism a month before her marriage to a Hindu man.

In an order passed on September 23, a single judge bench of Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi dismissed the couple's writ petition that sought a direction from the court that their relatives would not interfere in their married life by 'adopting coercive measures'.

In his order, Justice Tripathi recorded that the woman was Muslim by birth and had converted her religion from Islam to Hinduism in June this year, exactly a month and two days before her marriage.

"The Court has perused the record in question and found that the first petitioner has converted her religion on 29.6.2020 and just after one month, they have solemnized their marriage on 31.7.2020, which clearly reveals to this Court that the said conversion has taken place only for the purpose of marriage," the order says.

In his order, the judge also made a reference to a 2014 order by the same court that he said had ' has proceeded to observe that conversion just for the purpose of marriage is unacceptable'.

The 2014 judgement, in the case of Smt. Noor Jahan Begum @ Anjali Mishra & Anr. v. State of U.P. & Ors.) also says , ' Thus conversion of religion to Islam, in the present set of facts, of the girls without their faith and belief in Islam and at the instance of the boys, solely for the purpose of marriage, cannot be said to be a valid conversion to Islam religion. These marriages (Nikah) are against the mandate in Sura II Ayat 221 of the Holy Quran".

The court also left it open for the petitioners to appear before the concerned Magistrate in their area to record their statements.