The Gujarat government on Thursday said it would approach the Supreme Court challenging the stay granted by the High Court on certain Sections of the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act 2021 that seeks to stop religious conversion through interfaith marriages using force or allurement or fraudulent means.
“We are committed to stop the love jihad in the State. This amended Act is not a political tool for us. It is meant to ensure that women are not cheated or lured into marriages by changing names or surnames or symbols of Hindu religion,” Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja said in a statement on Thursday late evening.
Editorial | Faith and marriage: On anti-conversion laws
He said the anti-conversion law of 2003 was amended by the legislature to add Sections to stop instances of religious conversion through marriages using allurement, fraudulent means or force.
“We will approach the Supreme Court in appeal against the stay granted by the High Court,” Mr. Jadeja said.
In its interim order delivered on August 19, the High Court division bench stayed Sections 3, 4, 4A to 4C, 5, 6 and 6A of the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act 2021 pending further hearing, saying they “shall not operate merely because a marriage is solemnised by a person of one religion with a person of another religion without force or by allurement or by fraudulent means and such marriages cannot be termed as marriages for the purposes of unlawful conversion”.
