The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday approved the ordinance which criminalizes religious conversion performed through coercion, temptation, cheating, or for the sake of marriage.

The proposed ordinance, which aims to check unlawful conversions — refer to as “love jihad” by the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party leaders--provides for a jail term of 1-5 years with Rs. 15,000 penalty for those who convert women for the sake of marriage.

“Such marriages would be null and void,” the ordinance proposes.

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“If a person wants to perform marriage after converting into any other religion, they will need to take permission from District Magistrate two months before marriage,” state Cabinet Minister Siddharth Nath Singh said.

The onus to prove that the conversion is not being done forcefully or for any temptation will lie on the person who wishes to convert and the one who performs the conversion process.

The draft ordinance, proposed by the UP Law Commission a year ago and finalized by the Law and Home Departments, awaits the signature of Governor Anandi Ben Patel to become effective.

It proposes a jail term of 3-10 years with a Rs 25,000 penalty for unlawful conversions of minor girls and women of the SC/ST communities.

In cases of forced mass conversions, the ordinance provides for a jail term of three-10 years with a Rs 50,000 penalty, Singh informs.

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The move comes after the two-day meeting of the National Executive Committee meeting of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Prayagraj. Adityanath along with Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat and Sarkaryawah Suresh “Bhaiyaji” Joshi attended the meet where “Love Jihad” was reportedly discussed.

While the Law Commission proposed the law a year ago, the move gained pace after Adityanath recently said that those waging “love jihad” should either mend their ways or be prepared for their final journey – “Ram naam satya hai ki yatra nikalne wali hai”.

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No evidence of foreign funding or conspiracy in Kanpur’s “Love Jihad” cases

A special investigation team formed to probe into incidents of 'love jihad' in Kanpur has not found any evidence of a conspiracy or foreign funding behind those cases.

The accused youths did not have the backing of any organization, the SIT probe found.

Kanpur Range Inspector General (IG) Mohit Agarwal claimed out of the 14 cases investigated, crime was found in 11 cases. “In three cases men had given false names and the girls say they found out later these men are from a different religion. In some cases, girls were minor,” he said.

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‘Right to Choose a Partner is a Fundamental Right’: Allahabad HC

A division bench of the Allahabad High Court had recently ruled that two previous orders by single judges of the court, which had said that conversion purely for the sake of marriage was illegal, were not good law.

“Right to live with a person of his/her choice irrespective of religion professed by them is intrinsic to the right to life and personal liberty. The matters of religious conversion are irrelevant if both the parties are adults and in a consenting relationship. The right of two adults to stay together cannot be encroached upon by the state,” the court ruled, which is in contrast with the proposed ordinance.

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