Gujarat Seeks Removal Of Stay Order On Section 5 Of Anti-'Love Jihad' Law

Gujarat government's lawyer told the high court that section 5 has nothing to do with marriage and it is permission for conversion, which people have been seeking since the last 18 years under the Gujarat Freedom Of Religion Act, 2003.

The Gujarat government today approached the state high court seeking rectification in its recent order in which it stayed the operation of section 5 of the new anti-conversion law. The government told the Gujarat High Court that section 5 of the Gujarat Freedom Of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021 has nothing to do with marriage per se. The court agreed to hear the government's contention. On August 19, the high court had stayed sections 3, 4, 4A to 4C, 5, 6 and 6A of the 2021 amended Act pending further hearing, saying that they "shall not operate merely because a marriage is solemnised by a person of one religion with a person of another religion without force or by allurement or by fraudulent means and such marriages cannot be termed as marriages for the purposes of unlawful conversion". The state government approached the division bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Biren Vaishnav on Wedensday, seeking its permission for circulation of the note for rectification of its order regarding section 5 of the amended Act, which has been challenged through two petitions.