Greeva Garg-
Allahabad High Court has refused to grant relief and dismissed petitions filed by three distinct inter-faith couples under non-compliance of Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance 2020.
A bench headed by Justice Siddharth stated that “There was non-compliance of Section 8 & 9 of the Ordinance (now Act) as the mandatory requirement of submitting a declaration form before the District Magistrate (DM) 60 days before the conversion was not complied with.”
One of the three petitions was filed by Kareena, a Muslim woman, who married a Hindu man. She submitted before the Court that she converted her religion from Islam to Hinduism and produced the certificate issued by a Sansakar Adhikari of Arya Samaj.
The Court cited sections 8 and 9 of the Unlawful Conversion Law and observed that “The woman’s conversion cannot be held to be legal, therefore no relief can be granted to the petitioners. There was no compliance of the aforesaid sections, and the conversion of the woman from Islam to the Hindu religion is in contravention to the law.”
Another case was filed by Hunaina, a Muslim woman who entered into Nikah with a Hindu man, who converted his religion to Islam. The couple submitted the religion conversion certificate signed by Kazi.
The Bench, while dismissing the petition, observed that “The certificate of Kazi is of no consequence given in the above ordinance and the conversion of man from Hindu religion to Islamic religion is in contravention to the aforesaid ordinance.”
Lastly, in the case of Asma, a Muslim woman applied for online registration of her marriage after marrying a Hindu man with proper Hindu marriage rites. However, they provided no evidence of conversion before the Court.
Accordingly, the Court stated that “There is no evidence of conversion of woman to Hindu religion. Without conversion to Hindu religion, the marriage of the petitioners cannot be per law.”
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