The commission has suggested changes in the law to prevent conversions for the sake of bigamy.
Here's bad news for the likes of Chander Mohan alias Chand Mohammed, who converted to Islam to remarry without divorcing his first wife.
The law commission on Wednesday recommended insertion of a section in the Hindu Marriage Act to prevent men from converting for the purpose of remarriage unless the first marriage is dissolved legally.
The axed Haryana deputy chief minister had 'married' the state's former deputy advocate-general Anuradha Bali and embraced Islam. He became Chand Mohammed and Bali, Fiza.
The commission said that unless the first marriage is legally dissolved, the second should not be recognised and should be considered an offence.
The commission submitted its report to the Union law ministry, saying that "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 and 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.
Bigamy's fine... in some cases
The Supreme Court recently ruled that a woman who had deserted her husband long ago and never tried to get in touch with him for years couldn't charge him with cruelty when he married another woman and committed 'bigamy'.
Though bigamy is an offence and it amounts to cruelty when a couple is together, it does not come into the equation when both are estranged and don't care for each other any longer, the court said.
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