Construing a 75-year-old law, the Delhi high court has held that a woman who had embraced Islam after marriage but reverted to her original faith can annul the marriage due to apostasy, which is defined as the renunciation or abandonment of one’s religious or political beliefs.
Giving the go-ahead to divorce under the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939 to Sultana (name changed), a division bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Najmi Waziri clarified there is no requirement in such circumstances for a woman who leaves the pale of Islam to prove her act in a trial. The simple act of apostasy dissolves the marriage if she so desires.
A woman who converted to Islam then reverted to Hinduism seeks divorce on the ground of apostasy. Husband seeks proof of her renunciation of Islam.
High Court rejects the husband’s allegation that she needed to prove apostasy saying: “Being of a religious persuasion or belief in a particular religion and continuance thereof is an existential choice.”