A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking setting aside of an Allahabad High Court order which held that conversions just for the sake of marriage are invalid.
The petition said that if the?court does not allow a person to freely choose his religion, it amounts to a violation of his or her fundamental right as guaranteed under the Constitution of India.
It also sought direction for providing immediate police protection to the couple whose petition was dismissed by the high court.
Advocate Aldanish Rein filed the plea in the apex court against the high court order declining to provide police protection to the married couple where a Muslim woman converted to Hinduism and married a Hindu man.
On September 23, the high court had dismissed the plea by the couple seeking direction to police and the woman's father not to disturb their marriage and had said that conversion just for the sake of marriage is not valid.
The petition said: ˇ°It is further prayed that all the matters pending in various high courts challenging provisions of the Special Marriage Act 1954 should be transferred to this court and adjudicated so as to bring uniformity in the Act for the entire country or in the alternate a committee be formedˇto ascertain and recommend appropriate amendments in the Act for its effective implementation.ˇ±
It said that the high court order ˇ°has not only left the poor couple at the mercy of the offending family members, the police, the vigilantes and the hate monger religious associations but has also laid a wrong precedent that the inter-religious marriages cannot be solemnized at the instance of conversion of religion by either of the partnerˇ±.
It also added that citing the high court order, states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Karnataka have already announced they would enact law banning conversion of religion for the purpose of marriage.