Can a minor be converted to another religion?
Some of you may have already read the story of a recent, extraordinary judgement by the Kolkata High Court that involved the religious conversion of a minor:
Calcutta High Court on Wednesday (16th Dec) granted the anticipatory bail plea of a 26-year-old youth from Murshidabad who had been accused of kidnapping and marrying a 15-year-old girl.
Sairul Sheikh, a resident of Bakultala in Behrampore, had been accused of kidnapping and forcibly marrying Anita Roy.
A division bench of Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh and Justice S P Talukdar allowed Sheikh’s plea after his lawyers Joymalya Bagchi and Rajib Lochan Chakraborty submitted that the marriage was legal under Muslim Personal Law. Holding the marriage legal, the court granted Sheikh’s anticipatory bail application.
I came across a detailed account of this on BangladeshiHindu’s blog earlier today that prompted the following questions:
- Can a minor be converted to another religion?
- Should there be a “cooling-off” period before the relevant law(s), in this case the Muslim Personal Law, becomes applicable to a convert (- also relevant in situations such as these)?
- Should the minimum age for marriage in “secular” India be dependent on which religion you belong to?
- Can a “minor” post-conversion instantly become an “adult” – thus making a possible abduction sound like an elopement?
What do you think? Pl share your thoughts/views via the comments box below.
Pl. note that I am a little tied up over the next 2-3 days so there may be some delay in responding to (and moderating) comments. Thanks.
Additional links:
Bangladesh:- Forceful Conversion of Two Minor Hindu Girls to Islam
Malaysia bans forced conversion of minors to Islam
and a link regarding conversion of minors into Judaism.
See also this somewhat sad story of a conversion/re-conversion from Malaysia
Calcutta High Court image courtesy: http://calcuttahighcourt.nic.in/
P.S. Curiously (or perhaps not) no coverage of this by any mainstream media outlet.
P.P.S. Sridhar and I were a few hours apart while thinking about this issue!
A request to readers from Bengal and/or familiar with Bengali: Can you please check if the vernacular media has reported any details of this case beyond what has already been mentioned?
A request to lawyers and/or those familiar with law (esp. civil law): Whats the legal opinion on Questions No. #1 and #4?
Shantanu,
Your article is well thought out, mine was a knee jerk reaction to what i read again from the same bengali (bangladesh hindu) site.
your reference to Malaysia connected with what i was reading / thinking about.
One tragic story of a “Hindu to muslim Convert”. – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maniam_Moorthy
Another of a “Muslim to christian conversion”. – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Joy
My personal experience in Malaysia though for only two weeks in the year 2005 was completely different. Tamilians occupied most lower level jobs and during my interaction with them appeared content. what was surprising then was the lack of visible signs. The only mosque i saw was miles off where i lived. I never heard the adhan – muslim call for prayer.
on the other hand in chennai today there is hardly any place where you do not hear the Adhan. the only visible sign was the local television was fully Islamic.
On your four questions:
1. The hindu minority Act ( a very small and simple Act) is silent on this count. If you assume conversion as a contract then the Indian Contract Act would apply. But then that is a flimsy argument. One fit case for the comment “what is legal may not be Just”.
2. A very important and relevant observation. I have heard of a few cases where a married man converts islam to marry a second wife – Haryana ex deputy chief minister “Chand Mohammed” an apt example. There is scant respect for Hinduism or Islam the convert is fooling every one and legally.
3. which brings us to your 3rd question – have a level playing field – but unfortunately it is not seen that way – The much maligned Hinduism is the only religion which has allowed so much reformation through the legal process (a positive). The hindu code that we follow is not “Manu’s” code of law but the Anglo-Hindu Law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Hindu_law
The other religions would not allow the government to tamper with their lawas for right or wrong reasons.
so you are back to square one. you can argue the case but the judgment is already written.
you can sympathise with the girl, the parents. Hope or pray that the boy does not move the court for conjugal rights, worse go to a Muslim Personal law board.
rgds/sridhar
This is what I feel about your questions:
1. Yes, a minor should be allowed to decide upon his religion, provided it is not forceful _and_ his parents agree to it.
2, 3, 4. I think these 3 questions are related – different laws for different people. That is something which irks me a lot. Everybody should be held up to the same law. Religion should be a personal affair, not a state affair. What if I invent my own religion and demand my own set of laws? So, no. Marriage laws and “minor” status shouldn’t depend on religion.
Chandra: Find it strange you believe that religion should be a personal affair and allow a minor to convert but not marry.. And since when did Abrahamic religions become personal? They were designed and practiced from their inception as social, political movements
I didn’t say that a minor shouldn’t be allowed to marry, I just said that marriage laws should not change based on religion.
@ Sridhar: Thanks for the links…I will have a look.
Is there something called a Hindu Minority Act? I was not aware of this.
Even if conversion is a contract, minors cannot enter into contracts.
***
@ Chandra, Hrishi: Thanks for sharing your thoughts..I hope others will respond too…
This is a pretty serious matter…
this conversion of teens is a new phenomenon whereby people manipulate the laws to get their way. it is unlikely anyone in 1940’s would have imagined such a situation. my question is, if we dont allow minors to vote, to open a bank account (unsupervised), allow them to elect representatives, request their parents to come to school in case of poor performance, how could we allow them to convert to another religion without consent of their parents. this is common sense….
i agree on the idea of cooling off period..though i wish entire nation of india is governed by indian penal code rather than shariah for some and not for others…
I don’t remember it being reported by the local English media(at least it didn’t appear in The Telegraph)!!nothing new!! Anandabazar patrika did report it once ( Behrampur court had denied anticipatory bail->then they moved to Kolkata) We all know how blind and amnesiac our media becomes when it comes to reporting crimes committed by their beloved minorites!
shantanu,
the link to the act is http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/hinduminorityact/hinduminorityact.htm
rgds/sridhar
This appears to be another case of miscarriage of justice.
In this case the person is – 15 years old hindu girl. As per Hindu law she is a minor and therefore she is incapable of taking the decision – whether or not to change the religion.
Therefore, he decision to change her religion lacks competence. Rest follows.
Yes if as per Muslim Personal Law a Muslim Girl at 15 years is free to take a decision about whether she wants to change her religion or whether she wants to get married then we should respect that too.
Some more troubling questions:
1. Is it true that the permissible age for marriage under Muslim Personal Law (as followed in India) is 12?
and
2. Which law is the determining law in case of disputes in inter-religious marriages?
Grateful for any answers.
shantanu, @ yr querry at 11.
1. the child marriage restraint act, 1929 makes it illegal for men below 21 and women below 18 to marry.
2. but the muslim personal law applicability act,1937 overrides this as far as muslims are concerned.
3. The special marriages act,1954 would apply to inter religious marriages. the Act also covers divorce. Similarly the Parsis have their own Act. The Jains and Sikhs are covered by the Hindu Act.
4. The Christians upto 2001 were covered by the Indian Divorce Act, 1869 But this was amended in 2001. The Act is more comprehensive.
5. There was also some benefits that were enacted in 2001 which affected all the above acts – Hindu, Christian, Parsi and Interreligious.
rgds/sridhar
Thanks a lot Sridhar…This is very helpful.
One more such case.
http://haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=10187&SKIN=B