Supreme Court allows woman married to a man who converted to Hinduism to live with her parents
Anjali Jain told the bench that she wanted to return to her parents of her own free will.
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed a 23-year-old Hindu woman who had married a 33-year-old Muslim man after he converted to Hinduism to live with her parents. The court was hearing a plea by Ibrahim Siddhiqui who alleged that his wife Anjali Jain’s family had prevented her from meeting him.
The petitioner said he converted from Islam to Hinduism in February. He took the name Aryan Arya to marry Jain, a resident of Dhamtari in Chhattisgarh.
On Monday, Anjali Jain was produced in court. She told the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud that she had married Arya, but now wanted to live with her parents, The Indian Express reported. She said she had made this decision of her own free will, and had not been coerced into it. “She has categorically stated that she does not want to go with her husband and wants to go back to her parents,” the court said. “In view of the aforesaid, we permit her to go back to the parents.”
The bench said it would refrain from commenting on the legality and validity of the marriage, which will be determined by “competent courts”.