child born from void marriage between Hindu father and christian mother will be christian

The Apex Court in Smt. Yamunabai Anantrao Adhav v. Anantrao Shivram Adhav and Anr. (AIR 1988 SC 644) pointed out that S.5 of the Hindu Marriage Act specifically says that marriage can be solemnised only between two Hindus. Admittedly in this case Adichan Nadar is a Christian. Therefore, the finding of the learned Single Judge that the marriage is valid cannot be sustained. We hold that the marriage in question is not a valid one under the Hindu Marriage Act. We are therefore inclined to set aside the judgment of the learned Single Judge that the marriage between the fourth defendant with Mariya Augustine is valid.

7. The next question to be considered is whether children born in that marriage could form members of the joint family as per the Hindu Law and whether the children have to be treated by the religion of the father or mother. N.R. Raghavachary's Hindu Law at page 21 states as follows:

"Illegitimacy is no bar to the applicability of the Hindu Law, but in that case either both the parents must be Hindus, or at least the mother must be a Hindu and the child brought up as a Hindu, though the father is a Christian. If the mother is a non-Hindu, for instance, a Christian, or a Mohammedan, Hindu Law has no application to the illegitimate child, the reason being that the religion of such children is to be fixed by the religion to which the mother belongs."

Marriage between Christian lady and Hindu: childre{,born outof that marriage are

Christian : Hindu law has no application to illegitimate child : religion of such children

to be fixed by religion to which mother belongs.

Kerala High Court

Vijayakumari vs Devabalan on 17 July, 2003

Equivalent citations: AIR 2003 Ker 363, I (2004) DMC 667, 2003 (3) KLT 695

Bench: K Radhakrishnan, P C Kuriakose