The Allahabad High Court has dismissed the petitions filed by eight interfaith couples for protection of their lives, saying that their marriages were not in compliance with provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act.
The anti-conversion law passed in 2021 prohibits unlawful conversion from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, fraud, undue influence, coercion and allurement.
Through separate petitions, the couples had approached the high court seeking directions for their protection and non-interference in their matrimonial lives.
The court dismissed these petitions on different dates this month.
Giving this decision, Justice Saral Srivastava noted that these were cases of interfaith marriages, but the marriages themselves were not in accordance with law as the anti-conversion law had not been followed.
In the eight cases before the high court, five Muslim men had married Hindu women and three Hindu men had married Muslim women. The court mentioned the religions of the petitioners in the orders.
Declining the requests made by the petitioners, the court said, “In such view of the fact, the relief prayed by the petitioners cannot be granted. Consequently, the writ petition is dismissed.”
However, the court left it open to the petitioners to prefer fresh writ petitions in case they solemnise the marriage after following the due procedure of law.
After the enactment of the anti-conversion law, various benches of the high court have normally declined to interfere unless the provisions of the said law are followed.
