Hyderabad: Seventy years after India emerged as a Republic, the question, “Whether Love is a Crime?” has been brought to the forefront. Uttar Pradesh government, which is treating religious conversions after casting a love dragnet on Hindu girls in the name of love, has brought in an Ordinance to stop that atrocity of ‘Love Jihad’.
Already laws against religious conversions are in vogue in Odisha, MP, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand. Those laws say that indulging in religious conversion by force or through temptation or deceit should be punished. UP’s law further says that in addition to the laws of the above states, roping into other religion in the name of marriage is also punishable.
Though it is claimed that the latest ordinance is issued on the basis of the report submitted by the State Legal Society under the chairmanship of Justice Mittal, last November, it was the idea of Yogi Adityanath, while he was the President of Hindu Yuva Vahini. The new law stipulates that anyone who intends to change their religion should apply to the District Magistrate two months in advance. The law further says that if a marriage is performed against the law with the sole intention of conversion, and if the religion of the girl is changed before or after the wedding, such marriage will not be valid.
There is no doubt that UP’s ordinance is violative of the Supreme Court’s judgement given in 2018 making it abundantly clear that it is the right of a person to marry anyone under the 21st Article of the Constitution. That is why Justice Madan Lokur is strongly protesting that UP Ordinance is suppressing individual’s freedom and individuality in selecting their life partner.
There was a detailed discussion in the Constitution Assembly about religious publicity in India, which is a blend of different religions. While acceding to the request of Christians for evangelism, the item relating to religious conversions was not included in the Constitution and was left to the discretion of Legislative Assemblies but law and order, moral principles should not be affected due to religious preaching. While Odisha and Madhya Pradesh made laws against religious conversions in 1967, 68, the Supreme Court has supported them in 1977.
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It was made clear when tensions run high, the governments have every right to ban them. While 36 thousand inter-religious marriages are taking place in India each year, about 1/6th of them are taking place in Uttar Pradesh. The Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) Report testifies that there is no evidence that social tensions are on the rise because of such marriages in UP.
What is causing concern is that on the pretext of deceitful or forceful religious conversions, the marriages which are taking place with the approval of the elders are also being prevented through strict laws. The courts on several occasions have vindicated that if someone changes the religion on their own, having reconciled the other religious faith, it comes under the Fundamental Right incorporated in Article 25 and every adult youth has the fundamental right to choose his/her life partner. A Public Litigation Petition was filed against UP government’s hasty misdeed in the Supreme Court challenging that Legislative Bodies have no right to amend people’s fundamental rights. In just one month, Allahabad High Court has ordered protection to 125 couples who married on inter-caste, inter-religion basis. In this context, the Courts should be the right arbitrator against such hasty acts against Love Jihad marriages.
