Gandhinagar. The Gujarat High Court on Thursday refused to lift the stay on Section 5 of the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Amendment Act, 2021, while dismissing the state government’s plea seeking rectification of its August 19 order. The court also said that the stay on Section 5 would be effective only for inter-religious marriages.
Advocate General Kamal Trivedi, appearing for the state government before a bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Biren Vaishnav, argued that Section 5 has nothing to do with anti-marriage and hence the August 19 order sought a stay on it. The stated requirement needs improvement.
He argued, “Today if I want to convert voluntarily without any inducement or force, or by any fraudulent means, I cannot take permission, as Section 5 has been barred. This section is applicable to general conversion also. it occurs.”
In response, the Chief Justice said, “Marriage matter was not under Section 3 before the amendment, but now coming under Section 3, conversion for the purpose of marriage would also require permission under Section 5.”
As argued by the AG, they had no opportunity to argue Section 5, and the voluntary conversion out of Section 5 would result in a stay of Section 5.
To this, Justice Vaishnav orally said, “Now you will catch a person saying that no prior permission was taken under section 5, even if the marriage is valid and the inter-religious marriage is consensual, you can call it under section 5. infringement.”
Senior advocate Mihir Joshi, appearing for the petitioner, argued that if Section 5 is not included in the stay order, the entire order of the court would not work and thus, would become impractical.
He said, “If one wishes to marry (inter-religious), it is presumed that it will be illegal, unless permission is taken under section 5. Since the court has ruled only marriage between consenting adults Therefore, for individual conversions, it will be treated as stayed. The
court, in its order, said, “We do not find any reason to make any change in the order passed by us on August 19 (Gujarat Independence). Imposing an interim stay on certain provisions of the Act). We are, therefore, of the opinion that till further hearing, the rigors of sections 3, 4, 4A to 4C, 5, 6, and 6A shall not operate merely because the marriage by a person of one religion with a person of another religion by force or inducement or done without fraudulent means and such marriages cannot be called marriages for the purpose of illegal conversion.”
A division bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Vaishnav said the provision of the law, commonly known as the ‘love jihad’ law, deals with those parties who are in “great danger” from legitimate inter-religious religions. enter into marriage.