Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi, national president of the All India Muslim Jamaat, has said that the marriage of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and journalist Nidhi Razdan is not valid under Sharia. Speaking in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, he argued that a nikah between a Muslim and a non-Muslim cannot be recognised in Islamic law unless the non-Muslim partner first embraces Islam.
His remarks, first reported on November 1, 2026 by India TV and later by India Today, Aaj Tak, ABP News, Moneycontrol and other outlets, came a day after the couple announced their wedding. They have set off a fresh public debate on interfaith marriage, religious opinion and the law.
The wedding announcement
Omar Abdullah, the National Conference leader and Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, shared wedding pictures on X on Saturday, November 1, writing that “a new journey began yesterday.” Nidhi Razdan, a former executive editor at NDTV who belongs to a Kashmiri Pandit family from Budgam district, replied to his post on the same platform. The venue and the form of the ceremony were not made public.
The wedding followed the end of Omar Abdullah’s long legal battle over his first marriage. According to Gulf Today, the Supreme Court dissolved his marriage to Payal Abdullah by mutual consent on July 31, 2026, using its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution after a mediated settlement. The couple, who married in 1994 and have two sons, had lived apart since 2009.
What the cleric said
According to the reports, Maulana Razvi said both partners must be Muslim for a nikah to be valid under Islamic principles. Moneycontrol reported that he said the Chief Minister should have ensured that the bride embraced Islam before the nikah, and that the marriage could have been considered permissible in that case.
Maulana Razvi, who is based in Bareilly, is known for frequent public comments on religious and social issues. His statement is a personal religious opinion. It is not a ruling of any court, and it does not by itself decide the legal status of a marriage in India.
Religious view and the law of the land
Classical Islamic jurisprudence, as followed by most Ulema, generally requires a Muslim man to marry a Muslim woman or a woman from the Ahl al-Kitab (People of the Book) for the nikah to be valid in religious terms. This is the basis of the cleric’s view.
Under Indian law, however, the legal validity of a marriage depends on the law under which it is solemnised. Couples of different faiths can marry under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, which does not require either partner to change religion. It has not been publicly stated under which law Omar Abdullah and Nidhi Razdan married. Neither of them, nor the National Conference, had publicly responded to the cleric’s remarks at the time of writing.
The wedding drew congratulations from many people across Jammu and Kashmir and beyond, while the cleric’s comments have been widely shared and discussed on social media and on television debates.
Key details
- Who: Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi, national president, All India Muslim Jamaat
- Where: Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh
- What: Said the nikah of J&K CM Omar Abdullah and journalist Nidhi Razdan is not valid under Sharia without conversion
- Wedding announced: November 1, 2026, on X
- Legal note: Religious opinions do not by themselves decide a marriage’s legal validity in India
Sources: India Today, Gulf Today and reports compiled by Ground News.
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