A religion is a socio-cultural system of inter-tweaked beliefs, cultural aspects, ethnicity, perspectives, life studies etc. It can also be defined as worshipping of a superhuman deity, specifically a God, group of God etc.
A religion is a very personal & sensitive aspect of one’s life. The Indian Constitution also guarantees everyone to freely practice, profess & propagate any religion they wish to. A religion also influences a person’s way of thinking, their lifestyle & their marital life .
In today’s scenario, where the world is progressing, the love is flourishing too. People are coming out of their comfort zones to acknowledge their love. Inter-caste marriages, inter-religious marriages are getting more acceptance than before.
Sometimes when a person is born in a certain religion it is not necessary for them to develop love towards it. Some people might be Hindu by birth but might have an inclination towards Islam or Christianity. They might follow the other religion’s beliefs & practice their rituals. Their have also been some cases where some people get so connected and overwhelmed with other religions that they convert themselves.
The most prominent example of religion conversion is A.R. Rahman. Very few people know that he was born a Hindu but later in life, he got so connected & impressed by Islam that he converted himself. There is nothing wrong in that but only if your decisions, your actions does not affects your partner or your family.
If your partner converts his/her religion without telling you, suddenly, your life is going to get severely affected & hence under Diversity Personal Laws, you will be allowed to have a matrimonial relief.
The logic behind the entitlement of matrimonial relief is that with the religion conversion, there is a fair chance of that person’s personality getting changed which is going to cause a lot of ruckus in the non-convert person’s married life.
Secretly Conversion of religion could have the following legal effects on the marriage :
- An automatic dissolution of marriage.
- A ground for divorce for non-convert.
In the first situation if a Muslim guy renounces his religion to adapt another, he is known as an apostate & his marriage that happened under Islamic laws with an Islamic girl would automatically be dissolved.
In the second situation, religion conversion can become a strong ground for judicial separation or divorce. Under section 13 of Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, any marriage, solemnized under this act , may be dissolved on the petition given either by the husband or the wife , and the divorce shall be granted if any partner renounces Hinduism & converts himself into another religion.
For example, In Madanan Seetha Ramalu vs. Madanan Vimla, the wife converted to Christianity after marriage due to which the husband filed a petition for divorce & he was granted divorce against his wife.
It is to note that only a non-convert person can go to court to claim matrimonial relief on this ground.
Under Parsi Law, a non-convert Parsi person can file a case to claim divorce on this ground that the convert person has no longer remained a Parsi and has acquired another religion.
According to the Christian Law, a wife could file a petition of claiming divorce against her husband on the ground that he has converted his religion into the profession of another under section 4 & 5 of the Convert Marriage Dissolution Act of 1866.
Hence, if your partner secretly converts his/her religion you can either call on our helpline no. to consult with the best advisors or you can even make a booking at leadindia.law where you can come to meet us personally & we can discuss further.
We also has a specialization in divorces & matrimonial counseling.
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