Supreme Court: The bench of NV Ramana and MM Shantanagoudar, JJ, on the issue relating to legality of the marriage of a Muslim man with an idolater or fireworshipper, said that such marriage “is neither a valid (sahih) nor a void (batil) marriage, but is merely an irregular (fasid) marriage.”
In the present case, the plaintiff had claimed his share in property of his Muslim father, who had married his Hindu mother. However, the defendants argued that the plaintiff’s mother was not the legally wedded wife of Mohammed Ilias and that she was a Hindu by religion at the time of marriage. She had not converted to Islam at the time of her marriage, and thus the plaintiff was not entitled to any share in the property in question.
The Court, however, after considering that the marriage in question was an irregular marriage, noticed:
“the legal effect of a fasid marriage is that in case of consummation, though the wife is entitled to get dower, she is not entitled to inherit the properties of the husband. But the child born in that marriage is legitimate just like in the case of a valid marriage, and is entitled to inherit the property of the father.”
Based on the finding that any child born out of a fasid marriage is entitled to claim a share in his father’s property, the Court held that the plaintiff was entitled to his share in his father’s property. [Mohammed Salim v. Shamsudeen, 2019 SCC OnLine SC 52, decided on 22.01.2019]
