DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand registered its first case under a two-year old anti-conversion law against an interfaith couple that had gone to court seeking protection. The couple, who got married in September, had approached the Uttarakhand High Court after their marriage seeking security, citing threat from the woman’s relatives.
The court had asked Dehradun district magistrate to conduct an inquiry into the matter. An FIR was lodged post-inquiry at the Patel Nagar police station in Dehradun against the couple. “The case has been registered against four persons,” said Pradeep Rana, in-charge of the police station.
The others to be booked are the cleric who solemnised the marriage and a relative of the husband in whose presence the nikah took place. The investigation revealed that the couple had failed to inform district officials about their marriage, as mandated under the Freedom of Religion Act, 2018.
Section 8 of the Act says a declaration has to be given to the DM at least one month in advance by a person who wishes to convert “without any force, coercion, undue influence or allurement”. It also makes it mandatory for the religious priest, who performs the ceremony for converting any person to another religion, to give a month’s advance notice to the DM. The contravention of any provisions shall render the conversion, illegal and void, the law says.