Oct 30, 20202 min
The court of Justice Mahesh Chandra, while considering a writ petition filed by a married couple seeking police protection after getting married reiterated that if the conversion is not inspired by religious feeling and is done with the object of creating a ground for some claim of right then such a conversion shall not be considered bona fide.
The bench discussed the case of Lily Thomas v. Union of India, wherein men were converting their religion to Islam to solemnize the second marriage. The court observed:
A conversion of religion by an individual to Islam can be said to be bonafide if he/she is major and of sound mind and embraces Islam because of his/her own freewill and because of his/her faith and belief in the oneness of God [Allah] and prophetic character of Mohammed. If a conversion is not inspired by religious feeling and undergone for their own sake and is resorted to merely with object of creating a ground for some claim of right or as a device adopted for the purpose to avoid marriage or to achieve an object without faith, the conversion shall not be bonafide.
In another case, Noor Jahan Begum Noor Jahan Begum @ Anjali Mishra & Anr. v. State of U.P. & Ors., it was observed that "conversion just for the purpose of marriage is unacceptable". The Allahabad High Court had previously dismissed a batch of Writ Petitions which were filed by married couples praying for protection as they had tied the knot after the girls performed Nikah converting from Hindu to Islam.
Therefore, the Court relying on these judgements dismissed the writ petition stating that it is not inclined to interfere in the matter under Article 226 of Constitution even though in the past police protection has been provided to couples by single benches.