Supreme court issues notice on the plea upon anti-religious law: The Supreme Court issues notice on an appeal filed by the Gujarat government on challenging the Gujarat High Court’s order of staying section 5 of the Gujarat Freedom and Religion Act. Section 5 says that it is mandatory to obtain the prior permission of the District Magistrate for the purpose of religious conversion on marriage.
The Gujarat High Court had passed the order to protect inter-religious couples from harassment. The bench of High Court comprising then chief justice Vikram Nath and justice Biren Vaishnav made a prima facie observation that section 5 of the said Act interferes with the right to the choice of an individual, thereby violating Article 21 of the constitution of India. The High Court further clarified that the stay order of section 5 was only limited to the permission for where there is conversion along with marriage and that the stay would not fall in the way of permission required for any other reason.
The case Rev Stanislaus Vs state of Madhya Pradesh has been referred and stated that there is no fundamental right to convert a person to another religion as per the decision no fundamental right has been affected by converting a person’s religion so the provision requiring obtained
permission from the District Magistrate is not required.
The High Court submitted That opinion related to marriage has nothing to do with sec 5 of the said Act, the provision deals with the procedure to be followed in genuine cases of conversion from one religion to another.
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