Supreme Court accepts to hear Madhya Pradesh government’s anti-conversion law appeal against High Court judgement.
The Supreme Court stated on Tuesday that it cannot be asserted that all conversions are illegal while agreeing to hear the Madhya Pradesh government’s petition appealing a high court judgement prohibiting it from prosecuting interfaith couples who marry without notifying the district magistrate.
A bench composed of Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar issued a notice and scheduled a hearing for February 7.
Tushar Mehta, the Solicitor General, requested a stay of the high court’s ruling, but the Supreme Court refused to issue a directive.
Mehta stated that we cannot turn a blind eye to the use of marriage for unlawful conversions because “we cannot turn a blind eye.”
In an interim ruling, the high court instructed the state government not to punish adults who solemnise their own marriage under Section 10 of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act (MPFRA).
The high court stated on November 14 that Section 10, which requires a citizen desiring (religious) conversion to make a (previous) declaration to the district magistrate, is “in our opinion prima facie unconstitutional in the face of prior decisions of this court.”
The MPFRA prohibits conversions by means of misrepresentation, allurement, the threat of force, undue influence, coercion, marriage, or any other fraudulent means.
The high court issued an interim order in response to seven petitions challenging sections of the MPFRA 2021. The petitioners requested a temporary restraining order prohibiting the state from prosecuting anyone under the Act.
The court gave the state government three weeks to file its paragraph-by-paragraph response to the petitions and instructed the petitioners to file a rebuttal within 21 days.
