Maharashtra’s Minister for Women and Child Development, Mangal Prabhat Lodha, while speaking to the Indian Express, emphasised on regular meetings of ‘bhaichara committees’ at police stations and also spoke on the inter-faith marriage family co-ordination committee.
Lodha has said that the controversial interfaith faith committee is meeting regularly and will submit its first report by the end of this month. While speaking to Indian Express, Lodha said that the Committee has received complaints although he was unsure about the number of such complaints.
As of March 20, however, the Committee had not received even one complaint, since it was set up 3 months ago. This information was received by Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh who had written to the Maharashtra Women and Development Ministry, inquiring about the number of cases before the committee till date, and their details. R. Vimla, commissioner, women and child development, had confirmed that the committee has not received a single complaint.
This came just days after Lodha had announced during the Maharashtra Assembly session that the state of Maharashtra had over one lakh ‘love jihad’ cases. In response, another SP MLA Abu Asim Azmi had filed a privilege motion against Lodha for making false claims in the House. Mangal Prabhat Lodha had also claimed last month that the 12-member committee had already received 152 complaints, which was obviously misleading information as it has now been revealed that the committee has not received a single complaint.
Shaikh is also a petitioner before the Bombay High Court challenging the Maharashtra government’s resolution (GR) setting up the interfaith marriage family coordination committee. The court has allowed the same to be filed as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). Shaikh had filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court on March 9.
The petition stated that the government resolution is discriminatory against a particular religion and is violative of Articles 14 (right to equality), Article 15 (forbidding discrimination), 21 (right to life which includes the right to privacy), and 25. “That the assumption that adult women who choose and consent to marry someone from another faith need to be ‘saved’ is misplaced and goes against the spirit of the Constitution,” the plea states adding that, “without the couple having any control on who has access to their private information (GR) is contributory to the ever ongoing campaign of the parents, vigilante groups & society to control the lives of young people who have decided to choose their own partners.”
About the controversial committee
The Committee was set up vide a Government Resolution passed on December 13, 2023 following the gruesome murder of Shraddha Walkar in Delhi allegedly by her inter-faith live-in partner. The committee is meant to provide a platform to ‘counsel, communicate and resolve’ issues between couples and families. According to the GR, the committee can seek information of both registered and unregistered marriages.
Within two days of issuing the GR, the government conveniently removed inter-caste marriages from its scope. What seemed to many as a harmless exercise to protect women and to reunite estranged women with their maternal families, is clearly a step towards monitoring inter-faith marriages in the State.
A similar move was seen in Gujarat in 1998-1990 when the state police dedicated certain cells to “investigate cases of inter-community and inter-caste marriages.” The Gujarat police set up the special cells to ‘investigate’ inter-community marriages and was an act of the state that is directly violative of the fundamental rights of equality before the law, Right to Life with Dignity and Right to Freedom of Faith. This was followed by massive resistance and disenchantment of people and a spate of writ petitions were even filed by couples who had voluntarily entered into marriage before the Hon’ble Gujarat High Court.
Many social organizations in the state opposed this decision of the government calling it ‘moral policing’ and infringement of people’s right to privacy. They raised concerns that this data will be misused to monitor potential inter-caste (in response to earlier GR) and interfaith marriages and to discourage the same with the apprehension that such couples could be harassed. They also state that the government is ignoring real issues being faced by women in the state and should instead focus on effective implementation of laws against domestic violence and crimes against women.
About Bhaichara Committees
Lodha said that he wants to ensure that the ‘bhaichara committee’ meetings happen regularly to maintain harmony. He said this in response to the clashes in Malad’s Malwani area on Ram Navami whereby 12 men have been arrested for rioting and unlawful assembly. An FIR was lodged by constable Amol Walawalkar who said that when the procession of more than 6,000 was passing through Jama Masjid at Abdul Hamid Road, a mob of 150 gathered there and began raising slogans and eventually pelted stones at the procession.
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