As much as love jihad continues to be an unproven conspiracy not just in UP but in India generally, this law provides for up to five years of rigorous imprisonment and Rs 15,000, as penalty. But the punishment is stricter for 'conversions' of minors and women of the SC/ST communities. It comes with up to 10 years of imprisonment and Rs 25,000 as penalty.
But this move shockingly comes around the same time when the Allahabad High Court struck down two previous orders by single judges of the same court that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had previously quoted as a basis for the anti-love jihad laws.
Those verdicts had held that religious conversion purely for the sake of marriage was illegal, but on 11 November, a division bench of Justices Vivek Agarwal and Pankaj Naqvi held that neither of the two rulings were "good law" as they don't consider the "liberty of two matured individuals in choosing a partner or their right to freedom of choice as to with whom they would like to live with."
What kind of a precedent is the Yogi government setting with this law that even in the court's view goes against the fundamental rights of citizens, that too without enough evidence to support the government's claims on love jihad? Tune in to The Big Story!
Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha
Guests:
Mihira Sood, a Supreme Court lawyer
Vakasha Sachdev, The Quint's Legal Editor Editor: Shelly Walia
Music: Big Bang Fuzz
Listen to The Big Story podcast on:
Apple: https://apple.co/2AYdLIl Saavn: http://bit.ly/2oix78C Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/2ntMV7S Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IyLAUQ Deezer: http://bit.ly/2Vrf5Ng
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices