Karnataka govt exploring law to tackle "love jihad" : Karnataka Home Minister

"This love jihad has been there for some time and it is a social evil. A law is necessary - that has been the loud thinking of various sections of society in all states," Bommai said, NDTV reported.

Bommai's comment on formation of a law against love jihad came after BJP's National General Secretary CT Ravi and a former minister tweeted, "On lines of Allahabad High Court's order, Karnataka will enact a law banning religious conversions for the sake of marriage... Anyone involved in the act of conversion shall face severe and swift punishment (sic)."

Bommai said the Karnataka government is looking at the steps and consulting the law experts also.

"Based on those decisions, we would also like to have some protection... this inducement of youngsters into love jihad and then conversion," the minister stated, reported NDTV.

He pointed that Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh were also mulling similar laws.

On October 31, the Allahabad High Court Religious conversion just for the sake of marriage is not acceptable.

The plea was filed by a muslim woman, who converted to Hinduism just over a month before her marriage to a Hindu man, said media reports.

In a writ petition, the couple had sought the court's directive that their relatives would not interfere in their married life by 'means of adopting coercive measures'.

Media reports said family members of the woman known as Priyanshi alias Samreen were interfering in their marital life and she had sought court's directive to offer them police protection.

On September 23, a single judge bench of Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi dismissed the writ petition observing that the woman was a muslim by birth and converted to Islam only in June, just over a month before her marriage.

"The Court has perused the record in question and found that the first petitioner has converted her religion on 29.6.2020 and just after one month, they have solemnized their marriage on 31.7.2020, which clearly reveals to this Court that the said conversion has taken place only for the purpose of marriage," the order said.

The court referred to a judgment passed by the same court in 2014 that 'has proceeded to observe that conversion just for the purpose of marriage is unacceptable'.

The Allahabad High Court had rejected the petition in the case of Noor Jahan Begum seeking court's direction for protection to the married couple as the girl  converted to Islam just before her marriage.

In that case, the court had question, “Whether conversion of religion of a Hindu girl at the instance of a Muslim boy, without any knowledge of Islam or faith and belief in Islam and merely for the purpose of Marriage (Nikah) is valid?”

These marriages (Nikah), the court had said, are against the mandate in Sura II Ayat 221 of the Holy Quran, the media had reported.