Kerala High Court: Marriage after conversion invalid

In a rare judgement, the Kerala High Court has ruled that marriage which follows a conversion will be considered void before the law.

The court's direction came during the hearing ofa case involving a Muslim man and Hindu woman whose marriage was solemnized with the backing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) after the man 'converted' to Hinduism.

Justices Pius C Kuriakose and Babu Mathew P Joseph said the marriage of Shaiju M to to Ashwathy Ravindran would be valid only if they registered it under the Special Marriage Act.

Shyju had earlier filed a petition alleging that his wife was being detained by her father and uncle.

As a proof of marriage, Shyju had produced a conversion certificate issued by the VHP and the marriage certificate issued by a Hindu temple.

The court, however, refused to recognise the religious conversion as the basis for marriage.

The court has further ordered the woman, Ashwathy, to stay with her parents till they opt for a civil marriage.

Ashwathy's father K Raveendran apparently had objected to the groom's overnight conversion from Islam to Hinduism. He also told the court that there was considerable social and financial disparity between the two families.

"Having considered what we are told by the parties present before us, we feel that it is not safe to rely on the conversion of the petitioner from Islam to Hinduism stated to have been under the auspices (sic) of VHP," a Times of India report quoted the bench saying.

Conversion before marriage is often accepted in inter-religious marriages, especially where Hindus marry into Muslim and Christian families.

In 2010, the "love jihad" controversy erupted in Kerala after two college girls from Pathanamthitta embraced Islam and decided to live with their class mates.

It was later alleged that young Muslim men were deliberately luring women from different faiths into marriage so they will convert to Islam

The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) had then reported that there had been 2,868 female victims of the 'love jihad' in Kerala from 2006 to 2009.

In October, 2012 the Kerala High Court intervened a case related with 'love jihad' and said it was not acceptable to get married after conversion.

Court also ordered the couple to obey the rule of Special marriage Act through the registrar of the concerned area.

According to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, a total number of 7713 persons were converted to Islam during 2006-2012 as against 2803 conversions to Hinduism.


Among those converted to Islam during 2009-12, as many as 2667 were young women of which 2195 were Hindus and 492 were Christians.

The Chief Minister said there was no information regarding the original religions of women who converted to Hinduism and Christianity.