On Wednesday, the Apex Court permitted an NGO to make Himachal Pradesh & Madhya Pradesh as parties to a pending plea challenging the controversial state laws regulating conversions due to inter-faith marriages.
A bench headed by CJI S A Bobde also allowed Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind to become a party to the plea on the ground that a large number of Muslims are being harassed under these laws across the country.
On Jan 6, the Supreme Court had agreed to examine controversial new laws of Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand regulating religious conversions due to interfaith marriages.
However, the bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna & V Ramasubramanian refused to stay the controversial provisions of the laws & issued notices to both the State Govts on 2 different pleas.
The pleas, filed by Lawyer Vishal Thakre & others & an NGO ‘Citizen for Justice & Peace’, have challenged the Constitutional validity of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020 & the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018 which regulate religious conversions of interfaith marriages.
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