JAIPUR/JODHPUR: Hearing a case of alleged 'love jihad', the Rajasthan HC on Friday issued tough guidelines for religious conversions and inter-faith marriages and directed that these will remain in force till the state government brought a law to govern conversions.
While disposing of a habeas corpus petition filed by one Chirag Singhvi, who had alleged that his sister
Payal was forcibly converted to Islam to marry one Faiez
Modi, the HC issued detailed 10-point guidelines and said it was doing so "to check the problem of forcible conversion of religion".
Henceforth, a person wishing to convert to another religion in Rajasthan will have to inform the concerned district collector / sub-divisional magistrate / sub-divisional officer who shall put the information on their notice boards the same day and also ascertain that the conversion is not forceful. Once the person has converted, he or she can marry only a week after adopting a different faith.
As part of the guidelines, the person solemnising such marriages has to also ensure that the information of conversion has been duly given to the authorities. If a marriage is in contravention of the guidelines, it can be declared voidable upon complaint of the aggrieved party, the court said.
Payal, who took the name Arifa after conversion, had submitted an affidavit on a stamp paper of Rs 10 to the local police to declare that she had converted to Islam. During one of the hearings last month, the HC had taken a serious note of this with Justice
Gopal Krishan Vyas, who headed the division bench, remarking, "In this way, tomorrow, even I could address myself as
Gopal Mohammad."
On Friday, the bench of
Justice Vyas and Justice VK Mathur said, "There is specific pleading in the writ petition that nowadays members of the minority community (were) targeting girls aged 16-17 years of Hindu and Jain community and subsequently, as soon as those girls attain the age of 18-19 years, after converting them to the minority community, forcibly preparing false and forged documents to solemnize marriage of teenagers."
The bench further noted, "We are aware of the fact that under Article 25 of the Constitution of India, there is fundamental right granted to the citizen for freedom of religion and every citizen of India is entitled to follow any religion, but the question arises whether forcible conversion of religion for the purpose of marriage is justified? Obviously, the answer is 'NO'."
The bench observed that in some religions, marriages can be solemnized without conversions but in some others this was not possible. The bench referred to Sura-2- Ayat 221 of the Holy Quran quoted by the
Maulvi who converted Payal to Islam and solemnised her marriage to
Faiez.
The court said an important aspect of the matter was that within half an hour all the proceedings, including change of religion and 'nikah', were completed by the Maulvi.
"Nowadays, the problem of forcible conversion of religion has become a serious problem because teenagers are forcibly converting only for the purpose of solemnizing marriage," the court said.
However, the court clarified that Arifa Modi aka Payal Singhvi and her husband Faiez Modi were adults, so these guidelines would not affect their rights.
Representative image
