Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court on Friday issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government seeking its response over a petition that has challenged the legality of the “Love Jihad” law.
The next hearing in the case is slated for 7 January. The government will have to submit its response by 6th January.
The PIL filed by an Allahabad-based organization seeks the Court’s direction to declare the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020 as unconstitutional and void.
The law, approved on 27 November, aims to curb "love jihad" cases wherein Muslim boys marry Hindu girls just to convert them to Islam, the UP government says.
The PIL, filed through Advocates Devesh Saxena and Shashwat Anand, says these provisions give State policing powers over a citizen's choice of life-partner or religion.
“This law is against the fundamental rights to individual autonomy, privacy, human dignity and personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution,” says the petitioner.
It states, “The Ordinance assumes a 'tone-deaf' position to the latest ruling of the High Court, which is in line with the expansive meaning given to 'personal liberty' by the Supreme Court in its decisions in K. S. Puttaswamy (privacy case), Navtej Johar (decriminalization of Section 377IPC), Joseph Shine (decriminalization of adultery), Shefin Jahan (Kerala Hadiya case) and Shakti Vahini (Khap Panchayat) cases.”
The petitioner claims the provisions of the Ordinance dated 27.11.2020 are completely arbitrary, perverse, unreasonable and erroneous in law, besides being violative of principles of Article 14, 19, 21 and 25 of the Constitution of India and thus, the same should be declared ultra vires the constitution.
