SC to examine state laws on conversion

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Centre, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand on a petition questioning respective state legislations that outlaw and punish religious conversion by marriage, deceit, coercion or enticement.

The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, however, refused to stay the laws despite arguments by petitioners that they were being misused to harass individuals who married outside their faith.

Soon after the court order, Muslim organisation Jamiat Ulama-i-hind filed an application for intervention raising serious concerns over the two laws aimed to target Muslim youth. This application will come up along with the two petitions

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) recently questioned on Whatsapp an Indian woman from a Chennai business family who converted to Islam to marry the son of a Bangladeshi politician after meeting him in London, where they studied together, to find out if their marital union was a case of what some Hindu groups describe

after four weeks.

At first, the top court hesitated to issue notice as it was aware about the pendency of separate petitions before the Allahabad high court and the Uttarakhand high court challenging the Uttar Pradesh ordinance as “love jihad”.

The agency did not find any evidence that the interfaith marriage was “love jihad”, a term groups use to describe some relationships between Muslim men and Hindu women. The woman said she was happy with her husband and had willingly converted to Islam, people familiar with the development said.

titled “Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020” and the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act.

“Only the society in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand will be