Chand-II will be tougher mission

Here’s bad news for men like Chander Mohan alias Chand Mohammed, who converted to Islam for a second marriage.

The law commission on Wednesday recommended insertion of a section in the Hindu Marriage Act to prevent men from converting for remarriage unless the first marriage is dissolved legally. The axed Haryana deputy chief minister had ‘married’ the state’s deputy advocate-general Anuradha Bali and embraced Islam. He became Chand Mohammed and Bali is now Fiza.

The commission said unless the first marriage was legally dissolved, the second one should not be recognised and it should be considered an offence. 

The commission submitted its report to the law ministry, saying “married men whose personal law does not allow bigamy have been resorting to the unhealthy and immoral practice of converting to Islam, for the sake of contracting a second bigamous marriage...”

Commission chairperson Justice AR Lakshmanan recommended that section 17A be inserted into the Hindu Marriage Act 1955. Offences relating to bigamy under sections 494-495 of the Indian Penal Code must be made cognisable by an amendment in the Code of Criminal Procedure, the commission added.

It prescribed a proviso to section 4 of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939 — saying that this section would not apply to a married woman who was originally a non-Muslim if she reverted to her original faith — be deleted.