Christians in India have welcomed a recent court order saying interfaith marriages need not wait for the nod from authorities as required under the new anti-conversion law in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Allahabad High Court directed that the marriages of 17 interfaith couples in the state be registered without insisting on or waiting for approval from the competent district authority with regard to the couples’ conversion of faith.
The court said the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Un-lawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, does not prohibit interfaith marriages, but indi-viduals marrying outside their religion “can be subjected to harassment” while dismissing the government’s contention that the couples had not got mandatory approval from the district authorities under the provisions of the law.
The Nov. 18 order, passed by Justice Suneet Kumar in a batch of petitions filed by interfaith couples who had entered wedlock after changing their religion, said that “freedom of religion and belief is a basic human right across civilized states, and the state cannot inquire into or take notice of a person’s religious or moral belief.”