The Supreme Court of India will hear the series of petitions — filed against religious conversions — on April 16. A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan will hear an argument arising from the cause list published on the apex court’s website.
Among the petitions are challenges to such anti-conversion laws passed by various state governments and a plea for steps to check what they say is forced or fraudulent religious conversions. The issue has stoked a national debate over religious liberty and whether coercive methods are being used.
Amongst these, in January 2023, the Supreme Court observed that religious conversion is serious and cannot be politicized as one of the pleas. During that hearing, the court asked Attorney General R Venkataramani the views of a petition asking why Center and state governments should not take stringent steps against such conversions commonly alleged to be carried out through intimidation, threats, deceit or inducements like gifts and financial gains.
The court also advised the parties to bunch their cases and approach the Supreme Court with a joint petition for transfer of cases regarding anti-conversion laws, which are being heard in different High Courts. There are currently five pending in Allahabad High Court, seven in Madhya Pradesh, two in Gujarat and Jharkhand, two in Himachal Pradesh, and three in Karnataka and Uttarakhand.
More importantly, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, too, have approached the apex court seeking to challenge the interim High Court orders that stayed several provisions of their anti-conversion legislation.
Separately, the Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind has also filed a plea saying the anti-conversion laws implemented in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are being misused to harass inter-faith couples and criminalise consensual relationships.
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