Madhya Pradesh ordinance on interfaith marriages to be promulgated today

The Madhya Pradesh government will promulgate an ordinance to regulate interfaith marriages in the state on Tuesday after a Cabinet discussion, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Monday. Singh did not elaborate on the provisions of the ordinance.

The ordinance is being introduced as the state assembly’s winter session was postponed and the government could not table the Madhya Pradesh Dharmik Swatantrata (Freedom of Religion) Bill on such marriages.

The three-day session scheduled to be held from Monday was postponed due to the Covid-19 situation after an all-party meeting.

Also Read: Uttar Pradesh: Allahabad HC reunites interfaith couple in Etah

The state Cabinet approved the bill on Saturday. 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.

As per the bill, the marriages solemnised in violation of its provisions will be deemed null and void. The proposed legislation will replace the 1968 Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act. The provisions of the ordinance are likely to be the same.

Home minister Narottam Mishra said the bill is different from the Uttar Pradesh government’s ordinance promulgated on the same issue on November 25. Unlike the Madhya Pradesh bill, the Uttar Pradesh ordinance does not provide for parental property rights to children of an interfaith marriage, monthly maintenance, and a Rs 50,000 fine for an inter-religion union without permission of the district magistrate. In Uttar Pradesh, the fine is Rs 25,000.

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