The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh is planning a law that will have provisions for five-year imprisonment for ‘ love jihad ’. This was stated by State Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Tuesday.
The government would table the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Bill, 2020, in the next Vidhan Sabha session, Mr. Mishra told reporters in Bhopal.
“We are deciding that the use of inducements, seduction, fraud or duress for marriage and religious conversions will invite five years’ imprisonment,” he said.
The Bill would propose the offence to be cognisable and non-bailable. “Similarly, we are making a provision to declare marriages for religious conversion based on inducements, duress, fraud and seduction as null and void.”
In the Bill, those abetting the offence would be considered as culprits just as the main accused. “For action, it will be necessary for those bound by the religious conversions or their parents or siblings to file a complaint,” he said.
As for those indulging in religious conversion for marriages, they should inform the District Magistrates at least a month in advance, along with religious persons organising the conversions.
The announcement comes after similar plans were made public by the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Haryana governments.
Recently, the Allahabad High Court repudiated the idea of religious conversion solely for the purpose of marriage.
