The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad HC has barred Amethi police from taking any coercive action against an interfaith couple in a 3-year-old case now being investigated under the newly promulgated UP Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance 2020.
The bench of Justice R R Awasthi & Justice Saroj Yadav issued the order while hearing a plea filed by one Chandani & her husband, seeking relief in the face of alleged police harassment on the basis of a 2017 FIR filed by her father. The FIR, lodged at Kamrauli police station of Amethi district under Sections 363 & 366 of the Indian Penal Code, accuses the woman's husband of kidnapping her for forced matrimony.
The petitioners' lawyer, A K Pandey, said that the couple married three years ago of their own will & were now parents to a one-and-a-half-year-old child.
Directing the State Govt's lawyer to file a response to the plea within a week from Wednesday, the bench said that the case should be listed for hearing thereafter. "Considering the entire aspect of the matter, it is hereby provided that till the next date of listing, the petitioners shall not be harassed by the police on the basis of the impugned FIR."
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