The Jodhpur Bench of Rajasthan High Court on Friday issued ten guidelines to keep a check on forcible religious conversion in the state. This would mean that anyone wanting to change their religion would have their name put up on government notice board for a week during which people will be free to file objections before the permission is granted. However, the court has not specified the eligibility criteria for filing the objections, reports Hindustan Times.
According to this directive of the court, nobody will be allowed to convert their religion without informing the district collector.
Post conversion of religion, the marriage will have to be solemnised within a period of one week.
In case the guidelines issued by the court are violated, the inter-faith marriage will be void if a complaint is submitted against the same, reports The Indian Express.
These guidelines come after the High Court disposed of a plea by Hindu girl’s family who had alleged that their daughter had been converted to Islam under pressure and threat.
A case was filed by Chirag Singhvi as he alleged that his sister Payal Singhvi (now Arifa) had been forcibly converted to Islam and was kept in detention by Faiez Modi. He also added that the papers of her marriage were forged. The police had produced Arifa before the court on 7 November.
After taking cognisance of both the sides, the court on 29 November ruled that ‘this was a matter of two individual adults and they are at free will to lead the life they wish to’.
A bench of justice Gopal Krishna Vyas and justice Virendra Kumar Mathur said “Some guidelines are necessary to check the forcible conversion of religion because religion is a matter of faith and not of logic”, reports the Hindustan Times.
While people have the liberty to convert after attaining their age of maturity, the guidelines stated that a person should “satisfy himself/herself about niceties of conversion of religion”.
Every citizen has a fundamental right of freedom of religion under Article 25 of the Constitution of India, but at the same time, it is the duty of every citizen to protect the feelings of other religions and not to act contrary to the provisions of Constitution.Justice Gopal Krishna Vyas and justice Virendra Kumar Mathur to Hindustan Times
The court has also put the responsibility of conversion on the person who will convert the individual. The converter will have to ensure that the person changing his or her religion has to be “desirous to change the religion, is having full faith in the newly adopted religion and should also ascertain whether he/she is under any threat of another person or not...”.
(With inputs from The Indian Express and Hindustan Times.)
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