Top court asks who will decide if religious conversion is ‘deceitful’
POLITY – JUDICIARY
17 SEPTEMBER 2025
- The Supreme Court asked Petitioner-advocate Ashwini Upadhyay seeking a complete ban on “deceitful” religious conversions who exactly will decide whether an inter-faith marriage is fraudulent or not.
- Mr. Upadhyay said his petition was against religious conversion through allurement and duplicity.
- He argued that one had the right to propagate religion under Article 25 of the Constitution, but not to convert through fraud or force.
- Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai pointedly asked, “But who would find out that a religious conversion was deceitful or not?”
- 10 States such as Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, and Karnataka had enacted copycat “Freedom of Religion” Acts one after the other, with Rajasthan recently coming up with one.
- Recent amendments made in these Acts empowered third parties to file criminal complaints against couples in inter-faith marriage.
- The punishment under these laws included a “minimum 20-year sentence or a maximum of life imprisonment”.
- The bail conditions were on a par with the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
- The burden of proof was on the convert to prove that he or she was not forced or “allured” to change faith.
