CALCUTTA: Reference to the recent political campaign for a future Pakistan State in India was made by Mr. Justice Ormond in the course of his judgement in the case in which a Hindu wife on her conversion to Islam sought a declaration that her marriage with her former Hindu husband who had not embraced Islam and had remained a Hindu stood dissolved… An important point which arose in the case was, where one party at the time of filing the suit was a Hindu and the other a Mohammedan, what personal law was to be administered?

In his judgement his lordship “inter alia” proceeded to consider certain aspects of Muslim law as affecting this court, if the court were to apply the law in favour of the petitioner. After referring to authorities on the point his lordship observed that the position appeared to be that the Muslim was different in certain important respects (eg legal status of non-Muslims), according to whether the law was to be applied in a country under Islamic rule or in a country under non-Islamic rule … [U]nder Hindu law, as applied to the petitioner, the husband was left with none of the ordinary rights of a marriage.…

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2020