The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the response of states which have enacted anti-conversion laws on applications seeking a stay on the legislation.
A bench of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and Justice Vinod Chandran was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of anti-conversion laws enacted by Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana among others. Appearing for NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace, Senior Advocate C U Singh said its petition challenging the laws has been pending since long but now there is urgency as some states are amending them and making them more and more stringent.
He said UP amended its law in 2024, raising the minimum sentence for unlawful religious conversion through marriage to 20 years which can go up to the rest of the natural life of a person. The bail conditions have also been made stringent with twin bail conditions on par with legislations like PMLA and TADA and reverse burden of proof, he said. With these conditions bail becomes impossible for any person who has an interfaith marriage, said Singh, adding that recently Rajasthan too enacted this law. The Gujarat High Court had stayed some provisions of the state’s anti-conversion law while the Madhya Pradesh HC had stayed one provision of the state Act, he pointed out.
Singh said the 2024 UP amendment allows third parties to file complaints and that as a consequence, harassment is being faced by persons in interfaith marriages. The counsel said he had filed an application to amend his original petition so as to challenge the 2024 amendments in UP. The court allowed the request, and asked Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj, appearing for the states, to file replies to the stay applications within four weeks.
