No plans for a central anti-conversion law: MHA in Lok Sabha

Amid BJP-ruled states enacting controversial 'anti-love jihad' laws, the Centre on Tuesday said it has no plans to bring a law at national level saying offences related to conversions are "primarily" the concerns of state administrations.

This was disclosed by Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy in a written reply in Lok Sabha to questions raised by Congress MPs T N Prathapan, Anto Antony, K Sudhakaran, A Challakumar and Mohammed Jawed.

"Public Order and Police are State subjects as per the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India. Hence prevention, detection, registration, investigation and prosecution of offences related to religious conversions are primarily the concerns of the State Governments/Union Territory (UT) Administrations," Reddy said.

Action is taken as per existing laws by the law enforcing agencies whenever instances of violation come to notice, he said.

In view of this, he said, the answer to the query on whether the Government intends to propose a central anti-conversion law to curb interfaith marriages is "no".

The latest anti-conversion laws enacted by some states had raised controversy with a section claiming that the BJP-ruled states were targeting Muslims.