BHOPAL: Just a fortnight after CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan hinted about legal provisions against ‘love jihad,’ the BJP-government in MP announced on Tuesday that it would pass a bill in the Assembly to check marriages taking place for religious conversion.
“We’re preparing to introduce the Madhya Pradesh Dharma Swantantra 2020 Vidheyak in the Vidhan Sabha, maybe in the upcoming session. The bill will have provisions to declare all marriages happening forcibly, fraudulently, or by tempting someone for religious conversion as null and void. All those committing or aiding to commit such offence will be considered as prime accused and could face rigorous imprisonment up to five years,” Home Minister Narottam Mishra told journalists in Bhopal on Tuesday.
“The offence (marrying fraudulently, forcibly or by tempting someone for religious conversion) will be made a cognizable and non-bailable offence,” Mishra added. The other provisions of the proposed legislation will include notifying the district collector concerned in advance before formalizing an inter-faith marriage, the minister said.
Already, three BJP-ruled states -- UP, Haryana and Karnataka -- have hinted about enacting laws against 'love jihad'.
On November 6, the Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa had said that constitutional experts were being consulted for bringing a law against marriages taking place for religious conversion.
Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij too had informed the State Assembly about considering a law on the lines of BJP-ruled Himachal Pradesh, which had last year passed a bill against conversion by force, inducement or through marriages solemnized for the "sole purpose" of adopting a new faith.
UP CM Yogi Adityanath too had earlier this month hinted about legal provisions against 'love jihad’.
The Allahabad High Court too had recently observed that religious conversion only for the purpose of marriage was not acceptable.
The 'love jihad' issue had hogged the headlines in the recent past after a 21-year-old student Nikita Tomar was shot dead outside her college in Ballabgarh town of Haryana. The family of the girl had alleged that the accused had been pressuring her to religiously convert and marry him.
Earlier this year, the Centre through junior Home Minister G Kishan Reddy had informed the Parliament that no cases of 'love jihad' were reported by any central agency. The Union minister in the same written reply, however, had informed the House that two cases of inter-faith marriage in Kerala had been investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).