The issue of interfaith marriages in certain States, especially in UP, is a simmering cauldron

As Uttar Pradesh slowly gears up for next year’s Assembly elections, there is a concern that any communal polarisation adopted by political parties can draw undue attention to interfaith marriages, instilling a sense of fear and apprehension in young couples in love. “Love jihad” is the pejorative term the right-wing groups use to describe such marriages. The phrase has a negative resonance all over the State and interfaith couples either wanting to marry, or immediately after marriage, seek the protection of the courts to escape the anger of the parents and the fury of the vigilante groups. The Allahabad High Court on Thursday for the umpteenth time reiterated that two adults have the right to choose whom they wish to marry, irrespective of their religion. A Division Bench of Justices Manoj Kumar Gupta and Deepak Verma passed the order while granting protection to an interfaith couple worried about the anger of their parents over their relationship. The court also clarified that since the two individuals are major, “nobody, not even their parents, could object to their relationship”. It is significant to note that the said court receives numerous petitions from young couples every week. A survey of orders the court passed showed that it had granted relief to over 100 couples of interfaith and inter-caste marriages in the month of November 2020. Many of these cases related to interfaith marriages, involving the conversion of one of the partners.

These included some cases where the court quashed criminal cases filed against the male partner alleging the girl had been kidnapped. As “love jihad” theories abounded in UP around that time, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath stated his Government’s decision to bring a law against it. The statement came in the wake of a single Bench of the Allahabad High Court saying in a case that religious conversion for the sake of marriage was invalid. However, a higher Bench of the same court overruled the verdict a few days later, stating that “the right to live with a person of his/her choice, irrespective of religion professed by them, is intrinsic to right to life and personal liberty”. This order quoted a 2006 Supreme Court ruling that upheld the couple’s right to marry partners of choice and that the couple is “not harassed by anyone nor subjected to threats or acts of violence”. The UP Government promulgated the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religious Ordinance, 2020, criminalising religious conversion by marriage, around the same time. With a few other States also bringing in such a law, the Supreme Court was moved to review it. With the election fever gripping UP, interfaith marriages have the potential to draw the attention of vigilante groups on the question of conversion. In the case related to Thursday’s verdict, the woman had also applied for conversion from Islam to Hinduism. However, it is cases where the girl applies for conversion to Islam from Hinduism that become controversial.