HC notice to Gujarat govt over plea on 1st FIR under religious freedom Act

The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the state government after it objected to petition seeking quashing of the first FIR registered under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021. The complainant and the accused have moved the court seeking consensual quashing of the FIR registered in Vadodara in June.

With the offences being non-compoundable, the court of Justice Ilesh Vora allowed the state, represented by public prosecutor Mitesh Amin, to respond to the contentions raised by the petitioners and kept the matter for further hearing on September 20.

As per the FIR lodged on June 17, the complainant, a 24-year-old SC woman, alleged that her 21-year-old husband had introduced himself with an assumed name and ater marriage forced her to convert. However, a consent quashing petition was moved before the Gujarat HC on the ground that the FIR is an “incorrect, untrue and exaggerated version of the information” given by the woman complainant which “arose out of a petty and trivial domestic matrimonial dispute”, and that the said issue has since been resolved between the parties.