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Both incentive and jail in UP for inter-religious marriages
KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 11/25/2020 12:22:18 PM
NEW DELHI, Nov 24: Without scraping the incentive of Rs 50,000 in vogue in Uttar Pradesh since 1976 to couples for inter-religion and inter-caste marriages, the state Cabinet on Tuesday approved an Ordinance against unlawful religious conversions in such marriages, with a jail term of 1-5 years and fine of Rs 15,000.
For conversions of minors and women of the SC/SC community, there will be a jail term of 3-10 years with a Rs 25,000 penalty, according to state cabinet minister Siddharth Nath Singh.
The Cabinet took help of two judgments by the Allahabad High Court, striking down the religious conversions "just for the purpose of marriage." Chief Minister Adityanath hailed the judgment to propose a new law to criminalise "love Jihad" as already done in many BJP-ruled states.
Uttarakhand had adopted the incentive scheme on bifurcation from Uttar Pradesh to pay Rs 50,000 for inter-caste and inter-faith couples to promote such alliances. Much to the chagrin of the state government that had enacted a law in 2018 against the "love Jihad", its social welfare department made public details of 18 couples benefited from the incentive.
Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat ordered an inquiry into a circular issued by the department on how the incentive was continued despite the law enacted against such marriages in 2018.