Religious freedom does not mean freedom to convert, Allahabad High Court gave an important decision

Religious freedom does not mean freedom to convert… Allahabad High Court gave this important decision while refusing to grant bail to an accused of illegal conversion. The Court said, the Constitution gives citizens the right to freely profess, practice and propagate their religion, but it cannot be understood as a collective right to proselytize or convert other people to their religion. .

While giving this order, Justice Rohit Ranjan Aggarwal rejected the bail application of accused Srinivas Rao Nayak. A case was registered against the petitioner under Section 3/5 (1) of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Illegal Religious Conversion Act, 2021. The court said that the right to freedom of conscience ensures that every person is free to choose, practice and express his religious beliefs.

The High Court said that the individual right to freedom of conscience and religion cannot be understood as a collective right to convert. The court said, both the person converting and the person wishing to convert have equal right to religious freedom. It is alleged that on February 15, 2024, the complainant in this case was invited to Vishwanath’s house where many villagers were gathered. Most of them were from Scheduled Castes. Vishwanath’s brother Brijlal, Nayak and Ravindra were also present there.

These people urged the petitioner to abandon Hinduism and adopt Christianity and promised that by becoming a Christian, all his sorrows and pains would go away. According to the complaint, some villagers converted to Christianity and started praying, but the complainant escaped from there and informed the police about the incident. The court said in the order that if we pay attention to the allegations leveled against the accused, it becomes clear that an attempt was made to persuade the complainant to convert to another religion. This is prima facie sufficient to deny bail as it has been proven that a religious conversion program was going on.

Tags: Allahabad High Court Order, UP latest news