The Allahabad High Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to submit a detailed response by January 4 on public interest litigations on the Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance.
A division bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Peeyush Agarwal refused to stay the ordinance but directed the petitioners to submit detailed affidavits within two days.
The ordinance which was bought into force on November 27 aims to prohibit “unlawful conversion from one religion to another by… fraudulent means or by marriage and for the matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”. Although the ordinance brings into its ambit all religious converters, detractors widely perceive it as being targeted at specific religious groups.
The state's law minister Brijesh Pathak, in an interview with The Week, had said that incidents of forced religious conversions were on the rise and could lead to law and order problems. Thus, the ordinance was necessary as the Assembly was not in session.
The High Court has fixed January 7 as the next date of the hearing.
The court refused to pass an interim order putting the ordinance on hold and said that it would pronounce a final verdict on it.
The PILs have labelled the ordinance 'unnecessary' and called for its repeal.