The collaborators will be treated as the main defendants, Madhya Pradesh Interior Minister Narottam Mishra said.
Bhopal:
Weeks after the Karnataka and Haryana governments said they were considering legislation against “love jihad”, Madhya Pradesh Interior Minister Narottam Mishra said today that the state government will soon enact a law to counter the problem.
A bill may be introduced at the next assembly session to address Love Jihad, Mishra said, adding that there will be a rigorous five-year prison provision in it.
“The cases will be recorded in sections without bail … The collaborator will also be the culprit as the main defendant,” Mishra said. “For the voluntary conversion for marriage, it will be mandatory to request it from the collector one month in advance.”
On November 6, Karnataka’s chief minister, BS Yediyurappa, said he was interested in an early decision on introducing a law against religious conversion in the name of “love jihad.”
On the same day, Haryana Interior Minister Anil Vij told the State Assembly that the government was considering a similar law and had requested information from the Himachal Pradesh government on the matter. The Himachal Pradesh assembly last year passed a bill against conversion by force, induction or by solemnized marriages for the “sole purpose” of adopting a new religion.
The Allahabad High Court in September had said that religious conversion solely for the purpose of marriage was not acceptable. The court was referring to its earlier order to refuse to interfere with a couple’s petition for protection from relatives who interfere with their married life three months after their marriage.
The Allahabad High Court order recorded that the woman was Muslim by birth and had converted her religion from Islam to Hinduism in June this year, exactly one month and two days before her marriage.
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