Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain PIL Against UP Court's Remarks On 'Love Jihad'

The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a PIL seeking expunging of 'Love-Jihad' remarks in an Uttar Pradesh Court's order as well as guidelines to ensure that judicial pronouncements remain free from personal/generalized observations.

A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti dismissed the petition as not pressed, noting that the petitioner had no locus (not being a party before the UP court) and was merely 'sensationalizing' the issue.

During the hearing, Advocate Manas P Hameed (for petitioner) conceded in response to a court query that the petitioner was not party to the proceedings before the UP Court. In response, Justice Roy said, "You are a busybody... just interfering with something which is absolutely of no business to you. You can't be filing an Article 32 petition for a matter like this". Expressing similar sentiment, Justice Bhatti questioned how the court could expunge remarks in an independent litigation like the instant one: "Assuming a particular conclusion is warranted from the evidence before the Sessions court, and a conclusion is recorded which is not [relatable] to the petitioner before us, should it be expunged in an independent matter like this? We can't also examine that. Sensationalizing matter in this fashion is not correct".

Briefly put, the PIL assailed an order of a UP court in which 'Love Jihad' was explained as an act where Muslim men 'systematically target' Hindu women for conversion to Islam through marriage and fraudulently marry Hindu women 'under the pretense of love' to convert them.

In the said order, Additional District and Sessions Judge, Bareilly, while sentencing a Muslim man to life imprisonment for raping a Hindu woman, observed that the main objective of 'Love-Jihad' is to establish supremacy/dominance over India by some 'anarchist elements of a particular religion' by waging demographic war and international conspiracy. It was added that illegal conversions through 'love jihad' are done to fulfil some bigger objective and that if the Indian Government does not stop illegal conversion through 'Love Jihad' in time, then the country may have to suffer 'severe consequences' in the future.

“The crime of illegal conversion of Hindu girls by trapping them in love through love jihad is being carried out on a large scale by a rival gang i.e. syndicate, by brainwashing people belonging to the weaker sections of non-Muslims, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and OBC communities, women and children and by speaking ill of their religion, by making derogatory comments about the gods and goddesses, by applying psychological pressure and by luring them with various types of temptations like marriage, job etc., so that conditions like Pakistan and Bangladesh can be created in India too,” the Court order read.

The petition was filed through Advocate-on-Record Jose Abraham.

Case Title: ANAS V Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ANR., W.P.(C) No. 823/2024