SC declines to consider PIL to check use of dubious means for religious conversion

The top court said there is no reason why a person above 18 years of age can't be allowed to choose his or her religion

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to consider a PIL for a direction to the Centre and States to control black magic, superstition and religious conversion undertaken through gifts and monetary benefits to the vulnerable people.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman, B R Gavai and Hrishikesh Roy expressed their displeasure saying the PIL meant to generate publicity was of very harmful kind.

The bench also warned petitioner, BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay that the court would impose heavy cost if he argued on it.

The top court said there was no reason why a person above 18 years of age can't be allowed to choose his or her religion.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioner preferred to withdraw the petition on strong observations made by the court.

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The plea claimed religious conversion by “carrot and stick” and “by hook or crook” not only offended Articles 14 (equality), 21 (life and liberty), 25 (religious freedom) but also went against the principles of secularism, which was an integral part of the basic structure of the Constitution.

The petitioner contended that the cause of action accrued on May 10, 1995, when the top court in the Sarla Mudgal case directed to find out the feasibility of enacting anti-conversion law but the Centre did nothing to stop deceitful religious conversions.

"Incidents are reported every week throughout the country where conversion is done by intimidating, threatening, deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits and by using black magic, superstition, miracles and hypocrisy but the Centre has not taken appropriate steps to stop these menaces of society," the petitioner claimed.

He contended due to the inaction of the Centre-States, many individuals, NGOs and institutions were involved in the conversion of poor people, particularly from the SC/ST community, to other religions by various means.

Upadhyay pointed out that eight states Orissa (1967), Madhya Pradesh (1968), Arunachal Pradesh (1978), Chhattisgarh (2000), Gujrat (2003), Himachal Pradesh (2006), Jharkhand (2017) and Uttarakhand (2018) have enacted the anti-conversion laws, but there was urgent need by the Centre to bring out such a law with a minimum imprisonment of three years with a hefty fine, for implementation across the country.