Marriage Between Muslim Man & Hindu Woman 'Irregular', But Child Born Out Of It Is Legitimate: SC

A Supreme Court (SC) bench on January 22, ruled that the child born out of a marriage between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman is legitimate, and is entitled to claim a share in father’s property. The bench also said that such a marriage, however, will neither be valid nor void, but “merely irregular” which is described as fasid(Islamic religious concept meaning corruption) in Islamic law, reported Live Law.

Irregular marriage, legitimate child

The SC bench comprised of Justice NV Ramana and Justice Mohan M Shantanagoudar. The Bench was hearing an appeal against a Kerala High Court (HC) judgement. The Kerala HC upheld trial court ruling that the appellant is a legitimate son of Mohammed Ilias (a Muslim man) and Valliamma (a Hindu woman).

Senior Advocate Guru Krishnakumar, appearing for the defendants said that since the wife is Hindu, she could not claim rights over the Muslim husband’s property, meaning even the plaintiff (the son) was not entitled to share in the property. The defendants claimed that the plaintiff’s mother was not legally wed to Ilias and that she was Hindu at the time of the marriage, as reported by The Indian Express.

The SC Bench said that since Hindus are idol worshippers, the marriage between a Muslim man and Hindu woman is not regular or valid (sahih) marriage but is just an irregular (fasid). However, they ruled that the child born out of the marriage would be legitimate and is entitled to share of the property.

To come to this decision, the bench referred to texts including Mulla’s Principles of Mahommedan Law and Syed Ameer Ali’s Principles of Mahommedan Law. The Bench then concluded that the Muslim Law distinguishes between a valid marriage (sahih), void marriage (batil), and an irregular (fasid) marriage. “Thus, it cannot be stated that a batil (void) marriage and a fasid (invalid/irregular) marriage are one and the same. The effect of a batil (void) marriage is that it is void ab initio and does not create any civil right or obligations between the parties. So also, the offspring of a void marriage are illegitimate”, the court said.
Void marriage is one that is void and invalid from its beginning. It is as though the marriage never existed and it requires no formality to terminate. (Source: Wikipedia)

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