(India) — On April 16, India’s Supreme Court heard an appeal for urgent relief against the misuse of the country’s anti-conversion laws to target minority communities.
The court received several petitions challenging India’s anti-conversion laws, which are in place in several states. A group of lawyers led by the advocacy group Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) challenged the 2024 amendment to the Uttar Pradesh anti-conversion law that enables third-party complaints and harsher penalties.
The hearing on the anti-conversion petitions occurred based on an application for an early hearing of the matters pending since December 2020 and another application seeking interim relief challenging such laws passed in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh, as well as amended pleas to include similar laws passed in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, and Karnataka.
These petitions were filed from December 2020 through February 2021. The CJP stated on its website that it has filed these pleas challenging the anti-conversion laws as they impinge on the privacy, freedoms, and autonomy of adults.
The hearing on April 16 formed part of a larger challenge to the constitutionality of anti-conversion laws, with CJP asserting that such laws violate individuals’ freedom of choice and the right to choose their religion.
The interim application filed by CJP is aimed at emphasizing how the practice of the law during at least the past four years has resulted in widespread misuse, to further enhance the original argument on constitutionality of the statutes.
The CJP has contended that these laws, although allegedly framed to prevent forced conversions, are being weaponized by Hindu radical organizations and state authorities to discriminate and falsely accuse Christians and members of other religious minorities and create a climate of fear.
One key concern highlighted in the interim application is the pattern of abuse by Hindu radical groups, who use the laws to initiate false complaints and pressure law enforcement to act against individual Christians and their communities, often without credible evidence.
In several cases, these complaints are lodged by third parties with vested interests, such as organizations or individuals aligned with Hindu nationalism, rather than the individuals or families affected by the alleged conversions.
The application further argues that the laws do not provide adequate safeguards against misuse, with one of the major concerns being the tendency of state authorities to act on complaints without conducting any preliminary investigation. This has led to arbitrary arrests, detentions, and the imposition of social and legal stigma on the accused, particularly Christians and others from minority communities.
