The Supreme Court on Monday sought the assistance of the attorney-general in dealing with a petition seeking a law to ban all forms of forcible religious conversions but said none should be allowed to “politicise” the issue.
The apex court said the issue raised in the petition was of a “serious nature” and had to be examined by the court on its own merit without going into the intentions of the petitioner.
A bench of Justice M.R. Shah and Justice C.T. Ravi Kumar, while seeking the assistance of attorney-general R. Venkataramani, also rechristened the petition filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay as “In Re: Issue of religious conversion.”
The petition was earlier titled Ashwini Upadhyay, but the bench sought to rechristen the nomenclature of the case following objections from certain advocates that Upadhyay was a BJP member and trying to politicise the issue.
The issue relating to the intention of the petitioner was raised by senior advocate P. Wilson appearing for Tamil Nadu and supported by other senior advocates like Huzefa Ahmadi, C.U. Singh, Meenakshi Arora and Sanjay Hegde appearing for various intervenors who had opposed the petitioner.
Justice Shah, who is heading the bench, told Wilson: “Don’t bring political colour. Please keep it aside. You may have different reasons to be agitated like this, but don’t connect court proceedings with other things. If it is happening in your state, it is bad. If it is not happening, it is good. But don’t think that it (PIL) is targeting one state,” Justice Shah observed.
The court was alluding to the fact that the petitioner in one of his allegations had referred to a January 2022 incident wherein a 17-yearold girl Lavanya committed suicide due to alleged forcible religious conversion by her husband.
After the attorney-general came to the court, the bench said the issue raised in the petition was serious hence he should assist the court either as an amicus curiae or in some other capacity.
“We want your assistance also as the attorney-general. Religious conversions by allurements, force etc… are allegations. We are not actually opening whether it has actually happened or not. If it is happening then it is serious. If that is happening what should be done? What are the corrective measures?” the bench asked.
Venkataramani assured the court that he would examine the records of the case and assist the court accordingly.
Later the court adjourned the matter by over four weeks.
On December 5, the apex court observed that “charity and good work” is welcome in the country but the same cannot be a ruse for religious conversions, as everyone in India is required to act for promoting “cultural and religious harmony.”