Such an observation, as in the more recent case at the high court, could have far-ranging consequences for the persons in question. What is to be noted, in particular, is that the women’s consent to the marriage or conversion was not doubted in any of these cases – Noor Jahan Begum or the present one.
Misapplication of Supreme Court Precedent?
The high court also relied on a judgment by the Supreme Court in Lily Thomas v. Union of India from 2000, to say that the Supreme Court had apparently observed that “conversion of religion of a non-Muslim without any real change in belief in Islam and only for marriage is void”.
However, this is a curious application of the law in Lily Thomas.
There, the issue before the Supreme Court was related specifically to conversion to Islam for the purpose of a second marriage. The Court clearly framed the issue as “where a non-Muslim male gets…