New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday granted two more weeks to the Uttar Pradesh government to file its response on a person's plea that he has been falsely implicated under the state's stringent anti-conversion law.
The accused also alleged that he had been falsely accused of gang-raping a woman from Bengal despite their relationship being consensual.
A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar made oral observations against the Uttar Pradesh government for failing to file its response despite being served with a notice on February 14. The court had directed that the names of the accused and the alleged victim be masked to conceal their identities.
In terms of the earlier order, the Supreme Court had directed: "The names of the petitioner and the complainant/victim, who is directed to be impleaded as respondent number 2 in the present special leave petition, shall be suppressed.
"It is submitted on behalf of the petitioner that this is a case of a consensual relationship where the parties were known to each other for a long time and the complainant/victim has a child from an earlier relationship/marriage, but wrong allegations are being made to put the petitioner behind bars. Issue notice, returnable in the week commencing 17.03.2025."
It was alleged that the accused, in collusion with other persons, forcibly converted the woman from Hinduism to Islam and got a niqah solemnised with her.