SC Warns Against Harassment via Anti-Conversion Laws, Quashes FIRs Against SHUATS VC

Supreme Court of India quashed five First Information Reports (FIRs) filed in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur district, accusing several individuals, including Rajendra Bihari Lal, vice-chancellor of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS), of orchestrating "mass religious conversions" from Hinduism to Christianity. The court, led by Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, declared that the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, cannot be weaponized to harass innocent citizens, citing “glaring infirmities” and a lack of credible evidence in the cases.

The 158-page judgment, authored by Justice Pardiwala, meticulously dissected the FIRs, filed between December 2021 and January 2023, and found them riddled with legal and procedural flaws. Notably, the court highlighted that no alleged victims of conversion had approached the police with complaints, undermining the legitimacy of the accusations. One FIR, lodged on April 15, 2022, at Kotwali police station, stemmed from a complaint by Himanshu Dixit, vice-president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, alleging that 90 Hindus were coerced into converting to Christianity during an event at the Evangelical Church of India on “Maundy Thursday.” The court dismissed such claims, noting that witnesses neither underwent conversion nor were present at the alleged event, exposing the accusations as baseless.

The bench condemned the repeated filing of FIRs for the same incident as an “abuse of investigative powers,” stating that such actions “undermine the fairness of the investigative process and expose the accused to unwarranted harassment.” The FIRs invoked provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including sections for attempt to murder, intentional insult, and extortion, alongside the UP anti-conversion law, but the court found no substantiation for these charges. “Criminal law cannot be a tool for harassment at the whims and fancy of prosecuting agencies,” the verdict emphasized, warning against the misuse of legal processes to target individuals without credible evidence.

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The Supreme Court exercised its powers under Article 32 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to seek remedies for violations of fundamental rights, rejecting arguments that the petitioners should have pursued alternative legal routes. “As the highest constitutional court, we are the ultimate guarantors of fundamental rights,” the bench asserted, justifying its intervention in quashing the FIRs to prevent a “travesty of justice.” However, one of the six FIRs was detagged for separate adjudication due to its inclusion of unrelated offenses, with interim protection for the accused extended until a final decision.

The ruling also addressed the procedural nuances of the UP anti-conversion law, a special legislation with distinct requirements compared to the Code of Criminal Procedure. The court stressed that the law’s intent, as derived from its plain text, must be respected, but it cannot be manipulated to justify frivolous prosecutions. The judgment pointed to a pattern of delayed complaints by “persons with vested interests,” particularly in one 2022 FIR, which the court deemed an attempt to rekindle investigations against the same accused without new evidence.

This decision marks a significant rebuke to the misuse of anti-conversion laws, which have sparked controversy in Uttar Pradesh and other states for allegedly targeting religious minorities and stifling personal freedoms. The court’s findings resonate with broader concerns about the law’s application, as seen in earlier criticisms of its amendments for promoting a “medieval-minded” approach. As the ruling reverberates, it sets a precedent for scrutinizing similar cases, offering relief to those facing what the court described as unwarranted harassment under the guise of religious protection.

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