[Draft] Pleas Challenging Uttar Pradesh 'Anti Love Jihad' Law

In the batch of pleas seeking stay on the effect and operation of The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, Allahabad High Court today directed......................

The division bench of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Piyush Agrawal said, "...........

In addition, one of the plea also seeks ad interim mandamus directing the respondents not to take any coercive action in pursuance of the impugned Act in cases of conversion by solemnization of marriage or relationship in the nature of marriage.

The plea filed by one Saurabh Kumar argues that there are several other provisions in the Act that could plausibly be identified as unconstitutional and that the Act requires every religious conversion to be scrutinized and certified by the state.

However, the State government had defended the legislation. The State Government has earlier told the Allahabad High Court that "Marriage has been used as an instrument to convert an individual against their will and this is the malady which this Act seeks to remedy."

In the affidavit responding to the clutch of public interest litigations (PILs) challenging the Act, State Government had submitted that marriage has increasingly been used as an instrument of coercion to convert individuals from one religion to the other which is amply illustrated by the sheer number of FIRs that have been filed in this regard.

Case Title: Saurabh Kumar vs State of U.P. and another