For Dr Sayeed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, spokesperson of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, such cases reflect a failure of society at large, and Islam shouldn't be blamed for allowing them to happen. "There are many cases of second marriage by those already married," he says, "but they don't come to light because they happen in poor and rural areas, and the first wife either doesn't complain or is intimidated into silence. In cases where people fear legal hassles, they convert and use the Muslim Personal Law to save themselves." Moreover, adds Ilyas, because under Islamic law a man's faith is a matter only between him and god, a cleric has no authority to question why he is converting, so there is little the ulema can do to stop this abuse.
Sociologist Imtiaz Ahmad says Hindu society has an old tradition of men having more than one wife, "especially in border areas, which have a long history of martial communities where you inevitably had more women than men—since men were killed in battles—and thus more polygamy." But today, he says, "there's a motivation to have more converts, hence the ulema don't ask questions."
Professor Haseena Hashia who teaches Gender Geography at Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, and is a member of the Muslim Personal Law Board, however, holds that "the ulema do have a role to play. They can't just abdicate responsibility. If there is to be a conversion, then Islamic principles should be explained. You can't just have somebody like Hema Malini declaring 'Pyaar aur jung mein sab jayaz hai' (All's fair in love and war) and converting to Islam simply so she can be Dharmendra's second wife. " For Hashia, it is all the more galling that Fiza, who was the assistant solicitor general of Haryana, has "abused" the spirit of law in this manner.
One welcome fallout of the Chand-Fiza case is that it might force social and religious authorities to seriously confront the legal-moral confusion surrounding multiple marriages in India. And there is a plethora of views out there, ranging from an ingrained conservatism to a reformist spirit, cautious or otherwise.
According to Farooq, the laws "bind people to something (monogamy) not natural to human nature. This is why such cases happen. The legal system should take this into consideration." For Ilyas, the issue was settled by the 1995 Sarla Mudgal case, in which the Supreme Court held any second marriage solemnised after conversion while the first marriage was existent to be void. Supreme Court lawyer Pinky Anand points to wider implications. "In the light of the Sarla Mudgal judgement, Chand can be prosecuted for bigamy. But that's not the end. The Supreme Court judgement envisioned a uniform civil code that would ban the practice of second marriage by Muslims or non-Muslims."
The Muslim Personal Law has been up for internal debate and there is a view that the community should be left to its own incremental pace of reforms. Anand's interpretation, less isolationist, is certainly not one the ulema would be rushing to accept. So, despite the nasty, brutish and short marriage of Chand and Fiza, it may not be the last of the kind.