Now that the Uttar Pradesh Government has brought a Draft Ordinance and what it call is – a law against “Love Jihad.” The Conversion of religion for the sake of marriage will soon be a criminal offence, wherein, the perpetrators [couples] of such crime will have to undergo 1 to 5 years of imprisonment and a fine up to Rs. 15,000/- as far as caste Hindus are concerned. Whereas, the Accused would get a jail term from 3 to 10 years and a fine up to Rs. 25,000/- in the case of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes.

On 3o October 2020, a single Judge of the Allahabad High Court had pronounced an Order, against a Couples who approached it for directing the Police to give them a protection against their family members as they married inter-faith, heavily came down on their marriage, the Judge went on to say that such marriage was legally untenable and dismissed their Petition. Faqsonlaw in its editorial [https://faqsonlaw.in/2020/10/31/court-go-by-spirit-of-conversion-not-by-law/] critically analyzed such version of the Judge.

Welcoming such Judgment, the UP CM honoured the Judge with his as usual praising words and made a pledge than that he would bring a legislation on conversion for marriage. Now his deputy has done it by preparing a Draft Ordinance.    

Just a day before, on 23 November 2020, the same Allahabad High Court and its two Judges bench rebuked the single Judge Order and said that they failed to understand the Order passed by their colleague Judge and went on to say that;

“We fail to understand that if the law permits two persons even of the same sex to live together peacefully then neither any individual nor a family nor even the state can have an objection to the relationship of two major individuals without of their own free will are living together.”   

In faqsonlaw, in our 31 October 2020 dated Editorial – we raised similar question as follows;

“When an woman who has crossed 18 years of her age and a man who has completed 21 years are said to be major by our laws then where is the restriction for them to profess or practice religion of their choice or marry a person of their likes? The Court seems to have kept wrong footing on the rights enshrined in the Constitution.”

Common Man needs to understand the political language behind the expression “love jihad” made by our shrewd politicians.

Love is a subtle thing, a tender feeling and it is common to both sex, no one knows – at what age, how, when and where it comes to him or to her – and since the age of this Planet, men and women came into existence this [soft feeling] love got entrenched into us. Universally, a marriage age is fixed so to a man or a woman gets into contractual obligations on their own terms and they are called major on completion of certain age. Our question to the lawmakers is;

“When an age of majority fixed by the State under legislation to me and on completing that age when I became eligible for marriage and choose a life partner of my choice within in my religion or outside of it, profess or practice Faith of my choice – be my decision good or bad I tend to accept it – then why the State interfering into my liberty of my own decision that I am taking under the ambit of majority of age that law has acknowledged me?”

We don’t need a Politician to rule our State but by a good administrator. As long as we accept this petty politicians we are prone to live in an era of mythology or puranas.

Look at the punishment the draft ordinance speaks for caste Hindus – it is just 1 to 5 years with up to 15,000 fine and for Schedule Castes it is 3 to 10 years and fine up to Rs. 25,000/-

I leave it to the wisdom of these readers to understand – was it right to punish a person based on his caste?