The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to stay the Madhya Pradesh High Court's judgement which restrained the state government from taking any coercive action against any person for not giving 60 days prior notice before converting to another religion.
The top court said all conversions can't be called illegal.
A bench of Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar, however, issued notice to Samuel Daniel, the petitioner on whose plea the High Court had stayed operation of Section 10 of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act.
Seeking a stay on the High Court's order, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the Madhya Pradesh government said that there was no prohibition for marriage or conversion but it was only required to intimate the District Magistrate.
The bench, however, said all conversion cannot be termed as illegal. We can say intimation but no penal action can be imposed for contravention, the bench added.
Mehta, for his part, said it would have tendency of replicating. The court, however, remained unmoved.
In its decision in November, 2022, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had restrained the state government from prosecuting “adult citizens if they solemnise marriage on their own volition” and violate Section 10 of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act (MPFRA), 2021.
A bench of Justices Sujoy Paul and Prakash Chandra Gupta of the Jabalpur Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court had found Section 10 of the MPFRA prima facie unconstitutional.
The provision required individuals, intending to convert, and the priest who would carry out the conversion, to notify the District Magistrate of their intention 60 days in advance.
“Section 10 makes it obligatory for a citizen desiring conversion to give a declaration in this regard to the District Magistrate which in our opinion ex facie, unconstitutional. Thus, till further orders, respondent shall not prosecute the adult citizens if they solemnize marriage on their own volition and shall not take coercive action for violation of Section 10 of Act of 21," the court had said.