Guj HC stays key sections of new anti-conversion law
AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Thursday stayed the operation of key sections of the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021, citing its sweeping premise that suggested that all interfaith marriages were illegal.
The court said the law cannot be enforced until there is clear evidence of “force, allurement or fraudulent” for religious conversion and that it appeared to be against inter-religion marriages at the very inception.
The order by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Biren Vaishnav comes two days after the court observed that the law was a “sword hanging” over interfaith couples since the Act did not convey anywhere that such marriages were permissible. Issuing the interim order on Thursday, the bench said the purpose of this directive was to protect people “from unnecessary harassment.”
The court stated, “We are of the opinion that pending further hearing, rigors of section 3, 4, 4a
to 4c, 5, 6, and 6a shall not operate merely because the marriage is solemnised by a person of one religion with another religion without force, allurement or fraudulent means and such marriages cannot be termed as marriage for the purpose of unlawful conversion.”
The stay prevents anyone from lodging an FIR under this law merely on the basis of an interfaith marriage -- the court’s order suggested that this was in the
realm of the possible.
Responding to the court order, Gujarat deputy chief minister Nitin Patel told reporters: “Whenever such rulings are passed, our legal department and other technical sections look into it. Once we receive this interim order and after our legal experts have studied it, the government will decide on the future course of action.”
Mujaheed Nafis of Gujarat Minority Coordination Committee, who was also a petitioner besides the Gujarat chapter of the Jamiat Ulema-e-hind, said, “We argued that this law itself is totally against the Constitution of India, that guarantees the citizens the liberty to choose their religion.”
The Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021, which penalises forcible or fraudulent religious conversion through marriage, was notified by the Gujarat Government on June 15. The law is one of several passed by states where the Bharatiya Janata Party is in power, and targets what members of the party refer to as love jihad, where Muslim men misrepresent their religion to marry women from other communities, mostly Hindus.
When state Advocate General, Kamal Trivedi, sought a clarification asking what if a marriage resulted in forceful conversion, the Chief Justice said, “There has to be a basic element of force or allurement or fraud. Without that you will not (proceed), that’s all we have said in the order.”
Among the sections the operation of which has been stayed by the court is Section 3 which defines “forcible conversion”.