‘Love Jihad’ laws of UP, Uttarakhand challenged in Supreme Court

Dec 3, 2020
New Delhi: The controversial laws against religious conversisons in the name of preventing so-called ‘Love Jihad’ promulgated by the Uttar Pradesh and the Uttarakhand governments were today challenged in the country’s highest court.

A PIL has been moved in the Supreme Court challenging the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion Of Religion Ordinance, 2020 and the Uttarakhand Freedom Of Religion Act, 2018.

The plea moved by advocates Vishal Thakre and Abhay Singh Yadav and law researcher Pranvesh avers that “The ordinance passed by the State Governments of UP & Uttarakhand is against the provisions of the Special Marriage Act, 1954 and it will create fear in the society against who is/are not part of the Love Jihad they can be falsely implicated in the ordinance.”

They expressed their fear that the Ordinance can become a “potent tool in the hands of bad elements of the society to use this ordinance to falsely implicate anyone in this ordinance and there are probabilities of falsely implicating persons who are not involved in any such acts and it will be a grave injustice if this ordinance is passed”, Lawlive reported.

The petitioners, citing the landmark Kesavananda Bharti case, said “the court held that the Parliament can amend the Constitution but the Parliament cannot change the basic structure of the Constitution”.

The plea seeks issuance of a writ of Mandamus directing/ declaring the provisions of the Ordinances to be ultra vires and directions to not give effect to the Ordinance passed by the concerned State Governments.

The Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act was enacted in 2018 “to provide freedom of religion by prohibition of conversion from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage and for the matters incidental thereto”.

As per this Act, if any person comes back to his ” ancestral religion”, it shall not be deemed conversion under the Act.

Section 6 of the Act says that marriages done for sole purpose of conversion can be declared null and void on a petition filed by either party to the marriage.

The UP Ordinance, promulgated last week, mostly follows the Uttarakhand legislation, but it specifically criminalizes conversion by marriage.

It makes religious conversion by marriage unlawful. Violation of this provision is punishable with imprisonment for a term which is not less than one year but which may extend up to 5 years. It also carries a fine of minimum rupees fifteen thousand. If the person converted happens to be a woman, the punishment is double the normal term and fine.

Recently, the Allahabad High Court has declared as bad law its the judgment in which it held that religious conversions only for the sake of marriage are invalid.

A number of legal experts, intellectuals and rights activists has also criticised the law on the ground that conversion to any religion even if for the purpose of marriage was a matter of personal choice in which the state has no right to interfere.

–INDIA NEWS STREAM