Mrs. Sushmita Ghosh and Mr. Gyan Chand Ghosh got married on 10th May 1985 following Hindu rituals and traditions. However, after just a few months, on 22nd April 1992, Mr. Ghosh informed his wife that he no longer wished to stay with her and insisted on getting a divorce by mutual consent. Since it was a new marriage, Mrs. Sushmita Ghosh was unwilling to consent to a divorce and expressed her desire to continue living with her husband.
Later, Mr. Ghosh revealed that he had converted to Islam and intended to marry another woman named Vinita Gupta. He obtained a certificate of conversion to Islam on 17th June 1992 and announced his plan to remarry. Feeling aggrieved, Mrs. Sushmita Ghosh filed a petition requesting the court to restrain her husband from marrying Vinita Gupta, arguing that the conversion was a ploy to enter into a second marriage, which would otherwise be illegal under Hindu law.
Issues before the Court
The case raised the following key legal questions:
- Uniform Civil Code (UCC): Should there be a Uniform Civil Code that applies to all citizens, irrespective of religion, to regulate marriage and related matters?
- Conversion to Islam and Bigamy: Can a Hindu male convert to Islam solely to remarry, and would such remarriage be valid under the law?
- Bigamy under IPC: Would a Hindu male who converts to Islam and marries again without divorcing his first wife be guilty of bigamy under Section 494 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860?
Arguments before the Court
The petitioner argued that since marriage is considered a sacred institution, allowing bigamy through mere religious conversion to Islam violates the dignity and freedom of women who are subjected to such practices. The plea urged the Supreme Court to declare male polygamy under Muslim law as unconstitutional. Additionally, the petitioner emphasized the need for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to regulate all citizens equally, given the diversity of religious personal laws in India. Numerous women across the country also filed petitions in the Supreme Court and various High Courts, seeking to declare polygamy under Muslim law unconstitutional, as it was seen as a violation of women's dignity and equality. The petitioner argued that revising Muslim personal laws was necessary to protect women's rights and end practices that disrespected them. Advocate Lily Thomas presented these concerns before the Supreme Court on behalf of the aggrieved women, stressing the urgent need for a Uniform Civil Code to prevent personal laws from violating fundamental rights.
Analysis of the Court
The court ruled that if a person marries again while their first spouse is still alive and the marriage has not been legally dissolved, the second marriage is considered void under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 (not 1959). Such marriages have no legal validity and are treated as an offence of bigamy under Section 17 of the Act. Consequently, anyone guilty of bigamy can be punished under Section 17 of the Hindu Marriage Act, along with Sections 494 and 495 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860.
In this case, the court addressed a situation where a man converted to another religion to marry again without legally ending his first marriage. The court made it clear that changing one’s religion to justify a second marriage does not exempt a person from liability under bigamy laws. The court held that such actions would still amount to bigamy and attract legal consequences.
Concluding Remark
The Lily Thomas v. Union of India case is significant because it protected the rights of women who were being exploited by men using religious conversion as a loophole to practice bigamy. Many men were converting to another religion to marry again when their own religious laws prohibited a second marriage. The Supreme Court, through this judgment, ensured that such practices were punished under the law and upheld the justice system.
