Converted wife can seek divorce only after renouncing Islam: HC

Karnavati (Gujarat) : A non-Muslim woman who converted to Islam for marriage can seek divorce from her Muslim husband only on the basis of reconversion to her original faith, said Gujarat high court.

The HC further said that such divorce petition cannot be turned down by the family court without conducting proper trial because section 4 of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act does not come in between.

According to case details, Vadodara-based Christian girl Shinu married Muslim boy Javed Mansuri in February 2003 by entering into nikah according to the Muslim marriage laws. Shinu complained of ill-treatment by her husband and renounced Islam and reconverted to Christianity in March 2012. Immediately, she moved a family court and sought divorce decree on the ground that her husband was not maintaining her as well as her renunciation of Islam leaves her nikah null and void. The husband also moved the court questioning her reconversion and asserting that section 4 of the law prohibits the automatic dissolution of marriage.

In August 2013, a family court in Vadodara rejected Shinu’s application saying that she had alleged cruelty but not sought dissolution of marriage on any of the grounds of section 2 of the Act — desertion and non-maintenance of wife. The court held that section 4 of the Act — which prohibits automatic dissolution of marriage at woman’s renunciation of Islam – would not apply in this case because Shinu was a Christian, who became a Muslim and then re-embraced her original faith.

The rejection from family court brought Shinu to the high court, which cancelled the lower court’s order and sent the matter back for adjudication after recording evidence. The HC said that Shinu had to establish at any rate necessary facts by supplying evidence that she was a Christian first and now she has renounced Islam. She then will have to show legal fallout of her reconversion. She does not have to seek divorce by raising the ground of desertion and husband’s default in maintaining her.

Source : TOI