Umaria/Indore: Following in the footsteps of the Uttar Pradesh government, Madhya Pradesh government has proposed a maximum punishment of 10 years for so-called ‘Love Jihad’-related offences, in its new ordinance.
While addressing a public rally in Umaria district, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, “I will not allow ‘Love-Jihad’ on the soil of Madhya Pradesh at any cost.”
Jail term
With this Madhya Pradesh government has doubled the jail term in his proposed Freedom of Religion Bill 2020. Chouhan government had earlier proposed for five-year jail term.
Home Minister Narottam Mishra had called a meeting of law and home department officials at the secretariat on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the draft of the bill that will be put up before the cabinet. He even tweeted a photograph of the meeting.
“Meeting with officials of Home and Law Department in the Ministry regarding Freedom of Religion Bill-2020. The meeting discussed the draft of the proposed legislation with ACS Rajesh Rajaura of the Home Department, Principal Secretary of the Law Department Satyendra Singh and ADG Anvesh Mangalam and other officials,” Home Minister tweeted on his official Twitter profile.
Provisions
Under this new proposed ordinance, there will be a provision of punishment of up to 5 years for the religious leaders, Qazi or Maulvi who have preformed religious conversion before submitting the application. The complaint of conversion and forced marriage can be made by the victim, parents, family or guardian.
A day earlier, Yogi Adityanath Cabinet cleared the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, proposing a maximum punishment of 10 years for ‘love jihad’-related offences.
The Union Home Ministry on February 4 this year has clarified that the term ‘love jihad’ is not defined under the existing laws and no such case has been reported so far. No such case has been reported by any of the central agencies yet.
However, two cases from Kerala involving inter-faith marriages have been investigated by the National Investigation Agency, according to the Home Ministry.