Madhya Pradesh Cabinet approves ordinance on interfaith marriages

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet on Tuesday (December 29) approved the Dharma Swatantrata (Religious Freedom) Ordinance. 

The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet approved the bill on December 26. The bill provides for up to 10 years in jail for anyone found guilty of 'forcing women, minors, and people from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to undergo religious conversion'.

Under this legislation, the re-conversion to the ancestral religion will not be treated as conversion, said the draft law. It defines ancestral religion as the religion of the father of the person at the time of his birth.

Madhya Pradesh is the third BJP-ruled state to clear anti-Love Jihad bill after Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. 

In November, the Uttar Pradesh government approved a draft ordinance to curb forced religious conversions, including those for the sake of marriages between two communities. Under the new law, a marriage will be declared null and void if the conversion of woman is solely for a purpose. The state government said the law aims to prohibit religious conversion done using dishonest means like false representation, through force, influence, torture, allurement or for the sake of marriage.

In recent weeks, Haryana and Karnataka have also revealed plans to enact laws to counter alleged attempts to convert Hindu women to Islam in the guise of marriage, which party leaders often refer to as 'love jihad'.