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Gujarat to study possibility of mandating parental nod in love marriages
Patel said that he was told by state health minister to get a study done into the eloping incidents so that the consent of parents in can be made necessary.
Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel on Sunday said that his government will study the possibility of a system for making parental nod mandatory in love marriages if it is constitutionally feasible, PTI reported.
While addressing an event in Gujarat's Mehsana organised by the Sardar Patel Group representing the Patidar community, Patel said he was told by the state health minister about the need for a study into the incidents of girls eloping for marriage so that the consent of parents in case of love marriages can be made necessary.
"Rushikesh Patel told me to look afresh and carry out a study into the incidents of the elopement of girls so as to see if there is a possibility of (mandatory) consent of parents into (love marriages). If the Constitution supports it, then we will carry out a study regarding this and try to get the best result for this," Patel said.
Meanwhile, the opposition Congress came in support of the decision. "At a time when parents are neglected in love marriages, the government is thinking of creating a specific system regarding love marriages that is constitutionally feasible," Congress MLA Imran Khedawala said.
The Gujarat government in the year 2021 amended the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, making forcible or fraudulent religious conversion by marriage a punishable offence, with a provision of up to 10 years imprisonment.
However, the high court stayed certain sections of the Act which were challenged in the Supreme Court, where it is pending.
(With inputs from PTI)
