Supreme Court seeks response from UP, MP, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand govts on plea to stay anti-conversion laws

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a response from governments of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan and other states on pleas for staying on anti-religious conversion laws enacted by these states.

A bench of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran also decided to transfer to itself petitions pending before the High Courts, challenging the validity of these laws.

The court granted four weeks to these state governments to file their response and fixed the matter for further hearing after six weeks.

During the hearing, senior advocate Chander Uday Singh, representing Citizens for Justice and Peace, asked the court to hear the matter urgently as the state governments amended the laws to make these laws more stringent.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising, for a petitioner, contended that in Madhya Pradesh, there is an interim stay on Section 10 of the local MP Act. She urged the court to let the order continue until the apex court hears the matter.

Singh said one provision of the Gujarat law and one provision of the Madhya Pradesh law were stayed.

Jaising submitted that in the 2024 amendment in UP Act, several changes are there, and third parties can file complaints and not the aggrieved person, and all these checks and balances and restrictions kick in immediately.

"As a consequence, a huge amount of harassment is being faced by persons in interfaith marriage, in normal church observances, and in festival observances. Mobs come and get them picked up, and complaints are lodged by police,” Singh said.

The counsel argued that these laws are called the ‘Freedom of Religion Act’, but they are curtailing the religious freedom of minorities and targeting interfaith marriages.

The court asked Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj to file the state governments' response on the applications seeking stay on the amendment in the laws.

The bench also de-tagged a plea filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyaya seeking a pan-India law against conversion through coercion and deceit. In 2020, the apex court had issued a notice on a plea by Citizens for Justice and Peace against the laws in connection with religious conversions.

Later, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind filed a transfer petition before the apex court to transfer several cases pending in six high courts against the laws relating to religious conversions enacted by various states.

The laws under challenge include the Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2019; the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Ordinance, 2020; the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020; and a similar enactment in Uttarakhand. These laws aimed to prohibit forced or fraudulent religious conversions, but have faced criticism over alleged misuse and infringement on individual freedoms.