Sarla Mudgal Case

In Sarla Mudgal v. Union of India (1995), the Supreme Court held that a Hindu husband cannot escape a subsisting marriage merely through conversion to Islam and then validly marry again. Conversion does not automatically dissolve the first marriage; it must be terminated according to the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

Rule established by the Court

If a Hindu husband converts to Islam and contracts another marriage without legally dissolving his first Hindu marriage, the second marriage is void. He can also be prosecuted for bigamy under Section 494 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, as applicable when the judgment was delivered.

Legal reasoning

Under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, conversion is a ground on which the non-converting spouse may seek divorce, but it does not itself terminate the marriage. Therefore, the marital obligations arising from the first marriage continue until a competent court grants a decree of divorce.

• The Court prevented conversion from being used as a device to circumvent the monogamy requirement governing a Hindu marriage.
• The ruling concerned a second marriage contracted while the first Hindu marriage remained legally subsisting.

Scope of the ruling

The judgment did not declare all polygamous marriages under Muslim personal law invalid. Its rule addressed a Hindu husband who converted and remarried without first dissolving his existing marriage according to the law governing that marriage.