UP HC bars police against taking coercive action against interfaith couple

The Allahabad High Court has ordered the Amethi police not to take any coercive action against an interfaith couple, married for the last three years and having a child from the wedlock, under the newly promulgated anti-conversion ordinance.

A Lucknow bench of the high court put the restraint on police on a plea by the Amethi-based couple alleging harassment by the local police under the provisions of the U P Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020.

A bench of justices R R Awasthi and Saroj Yadav also sought the stand of the Uttar Pradesh government on the couple's plea. The notice to the government was accepted by the state government counsel.

The petitioners' lawyer A K Pandey alleged that couple was married three years ago and also have a child but after the promulgation of the stringent anti-conversion ordinance, the police have been harassing them on the basis of an FIR lodged by the woman's family.

The couple said in their petition that the woman's parents had lodged an FIR with the police accusing the husband and others of his family of kidnapping their daughter for marriage.

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