Prayagraj: The Allahabad high court on Friday stayed the arrest of a man booked by UP Police under the recently promulgated Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, for allegedly trying to marry a woman with intentions of converting to her to other faith.
This is the first time that an affected party has approached the High Court against this ordinance.
Hearing a writ petition filed by one Nadeem from Haridwar, who was booked by UP Police, a division bench comprising Justice Pankaj Naqvi and Justice Vivek Agarwal directed the state police not to take any coercive action against the accused, Nadeem who was booked by UP Police on November 29 on a complaint filed by one Akshay Kumar of Muzaffarnagar.
The petitioner had taken the plea that constitutional validity of the said ordinance is before another division bench of this court.
Appearing on behalf of the petitioner, senior advocate SFA Naqvi argued that the ordinance is ultra vires of the Constitution of India and any criminal proceeding initiated under the provisions of the ordinance shall be quashed.
“Special Marriage Act is a Central Act which provides a special form of marriage for interfaith couples. By impugned ordinance new prohibited degrees are created on religious grounds and this amounts to creating a communal and divisive legislation which is not at all permissible in our constitutional scheme. Once the Central government has made the law over the subject of marriage, then there is no space available for the state government to pass the this ordinance,” argued Naqvi.
Nadeem had sought quashing of the FIR lodged against him under Sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and sections 3 and 5 of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020.
It was alleged in the FIR that Nadeem developed an illicit relation with the complainant’s wife with the purpose of converting her religion by marriage and was attempting to convert her by threat as well as by exerting undue pressure.
Nadeem has denied all the allegations and asserted that he is a poor labourer who had been falsely implicated in the case by the complainant, merely to avoid payment of some dues which the complainant owes to him.