Love, Law, And Conversion: The Politics Of Marriage In Sarla Mudgal V. Union Of India
- IJLLR Journal
- Dec 16, 2025
- 2 min read
Nivya Bhaskar, Jindal Global Law School
I. INTRODUCTION
Marriage, considered to be a sacred institution in India, is not just a contract between 2 people but is also deeply intertwined with social, religious, and legal expectations. The Sarla Mudgal v. Union of India (1995) case resulted in large public debates, primarily about the exploitation of religious conversion for the purpose of escaping legal restrictions placed under personal laws. The question that was debated upon in Sarla Mudgal was whether a Hindu man, who was already married under Hindu law, could convert to Islam and marry again without legally dissolving his first marriage.
This case not only questioned the sacredness of marriage and the treatment of women, but also showed light on the various inconsistencies in India’s personal laws. These inconsistencies are often exploited by those who are looking for legal loopholes in such situations as posed in the Sarla Mudgal case.
This commentary will discuss the background, procedural history, critically analyze the ratio, and finally evaluate the impact this case had on family law, including the need for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
A. Facts
The lead petitioner, Smt. Sarla Mudgal (“petitioner”) was the president of Kalyani, an NGO that was created for the support of distressed women. This case came before the Supreme Court through 4 combined writ petitions under Article 32 of the Constitution. Petitioner Meena Mathur found out that her husband, Jitender Mathur, converted to Islam to marry Sunita Narula alias Fatima, without dissolving his first marriage under Hindu law. In another instance, Geeta Rani found out that her husband, Pradeep Kumar, converted to Islam to get married for the second time. Sushmita Ghosh also suffered the same fate, when her husband, G.C. Ghosh, converted to Islam to marry Vinita Gupta.
