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Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): “We are planning to ask the marriage registrars and other institutions which are involved in conducting marriages, to conduct police verification to check love jihad cases”, said home minister Narottam Mishra to the media here on Thursday, December 15.
The controversial minister then added that in these institutions the application for the marriage is submitted a month prior to the marriage. So, the Marriage Registrar Bureau and other institutions involved in the registration process like the notary can be asked to perform police verification of the applicants before conducting the marriage.
लव जिहाद की घटनाओं को रोकने के लिए मैरिज रजिस्ट्रार ब्यूरो और विवाह की अन्य पंजीयन संस्थाओं को लड़का-लड़की का पुलिस वेरिफिकेशन कराने पर सरकार गंभीरता से विचार कर रही है। pic.twitter.com/ZyMcJaAdyh
— Dr Narottam Mishra (@drnarottammisra) December 15, 2022
This controversial and blatantly unconstitutional statement seeks to authorize an invasion on both the privacy of individuals and their autonomy. An ultra right wing hysteria –clearly sanctioned by the political class is actually criminalizing inter-caste and inter-faith co-habitation; phenomena that the Special Marriages Act was especially enacted for.
In Madhya Pradesh the Freedom of Religion Act 2021 was passed to “curb religious conversions” carried out solely for the purpose of marriage. Citizens for Justice and Peace (cjp.org,in) has challenged the constitutionality of this law in 2020. Recently the Madhya Pradesh High Court too has struck down the most controversial sections. Section 5 of the act prohibits unlawful conversion from one religion to another by use of misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion and any other fraudulent means like allurement, or promise of marriage. “Offenders” of the act can face an imprisonment of one to five years.
MP HC bars coercive acts by government
On November 18, 2022, a division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court barred the state government from using coercion against anyone who disobeys section 10 of the MP Freedom of Religion Act, which requires anyone who wishes to convert to another religion to notify the district administration in advance. The petitioners had asked the court to invalidate the MP Freedom of Religion Act 2021 as being unconstitutional.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court prohibed the State Government from using coercion against anyone who violates Section 10 of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021, which calls for anyone wishing to change their religion to make a declaration to the District Magistrate.
A bench of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Prakash Chandra Gupta further ordered the state not to prosecute the adult citizens if they solemnize the marriage of their own free will after finding section 10 to be prima facie unconstitutional.
The division bench had reserved decision on a number of petitions seeking to keep interfaith weddings beyond of the Act’s reach and challenging the constitutionality of the 2021 Act.
In one of the pleas, a specific prayer was made to strike down Sections 2(a), 2(b), 2(c), 2(d), 2(e), 2(i), 3 (Prohibition of conversion from one religion to another), 4 (Complaint against the conversion of religion), 5 (Punishment for contravention of Section 3), 6 (any marriage performed in contravention of Section 3 shall be deemed null and void.), 10 (Declaration before conversion of religion) and 12 (Burden of Proof) of the Act.
Related:
No coercive action against voluntary religious conversion: MP High Court