Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Thursday issued a notice to the state government while hearing a petition challenging the provisions of a new law which penalises forcible or fraudulent religious conversion through marriage. A division bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Biren Vaishnav, which heard the plea, issued the notice to the state government and asked it to file a reply, and kept the next hearing on August 17.
The petition against the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021, was filed last month by the Gujarat chapter of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind. The Act was notified on June 15. During Thursday's virtual hearing, senior advocate Mihir Joshi, appearing for the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, said the amended law has vague terms which are against basic principles of marriage and right to propagate, profess and practice religion as enshrined in the Article 25 of the Constitution.
"If I say you will enjoy a better life after marriage, is it an allurement, as mentioned in the law, which amounts to an offence? The law says no person shall be converted by use of force, allurement, fraudulent means and by marriage. So it's an offence if two persons of different faiths get married? The law even allows distant family members to file a criminal complaint," said Joshi.
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