Police in UP stop inter faith marriage by referring to Anti Conversion ordinance
In the state capital Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh the police terminated an interfaith wedding citing the freshly passed law of Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020. The cops came into action only after receiving a complaint from a Hindu outfit.
The Para area of Lucknow was the location where the wedding was supposed to take place on Wednesday. But a team of police reached the venue and asked the entire wedding group to accompany them to the local police station. The police then asked both the sides to seek clearance for the wedding from the District Law Magistrate.
After the completion of all legal formalities under the law the families of both the sides are destined to go ahead with the wedding as the wedding was taking place with the consent and knowledge of both the families and there was no fury involved.
As per the ordinance religious conversion that uses force, falsification or luring solely for the purpose of marriage will be considered as a crime. All those who plan to convert after their marriage will also have to inform the District Magistrate at least two months in advance of their conversion. Any matter of forced conversion will now be a punishable offence and will be punished for at least a period of five years or a fine of 15,000 rupees under the passed law. If a woman from a marginalized community is converted forcefully then the penalty would increase between 3-10 years of jail and a fine amount of 25,000 rupees have to be paid and mass conversions will have a similar jail term but the fine amount will be 50,000 rupees.
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