is Hindu Law has to be amemded?

The Law Commission report on bigamy was not so much on the Muslim law as on the need to amend the Hindu law in terms of a SC verdict, which ruled that conversion to Islam would not allow a man to have a second wife without divorcing the first. Law Commission member Tahir Mahmood clarified this in a bid to allay ‘‘grave mis understandings’’ among Muslims on its report. As evident from its title, ‘Preventing bigamy via conversion to Islam’, Mahmood said the report suggested an amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act on the lines of the 1995 SC judgment in Sarla Mudgal’s case blocking Hindu men from using Islam as a licence to acquire a second wife without getting their first marriage dissolved. The Law Commission recommended incorporation of Sarla Mudgal law in the Hindu Marriage Act as Hindus continued to marry under the cover of conversion to Islam despite the 1995 verdict. In a statement, Mahmood claimed, ‘‘The Muslim law on bigamy, or the state of bigamy among the Indian Muslims, was not at all the issue before the Commission.’’ As for the Law Commission’s reference to the reforms made by Islamic countries, Mahmood said, ‘‘The true nature of the Muslim law on bigamy, which insists on equal treatment of co-wives and does not at all allow forsaking the first wife without divorce in search of a new one, was explained only in this context.’’