Religious freedom does not include right to convert others: Centre tells SC

The Centre told the Supreme Court on Monday that religious freedom does not include a fundamental right to convert other people to a particular religion and that it certainly does not embrace the right to convert an individual through fraud deception coercion or allurementThe central government said it is cognizant of the menace and laws that seek to control such practices are necessary to protect the cherished rights of vulnerable sections of the society including women and economically and socially backward classesThe Centres stand came on a short affidavit in response to a plea by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking direction to take stringent steps to control fraudulent religious conversion by intimidation and through gifts and monetary benefitsThe affidavit filed through Deputy Secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs asserted that the reliefs sought in the present petition would be taken up in all seriousness by the Union of India and that it is cognizant of the gravity and the seriousness of the issue raised in the present writ petitionA bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Raviumar while hearing the matter observed it was not against religious conversions but forced conversions and asked theCentre to file a detailed affidavit on the issue after taking information from statesAlso Read Gujarat polls Assam CM slams Kharges tea remarksYou file a detailed affidavit after obtaining the necessary information from the concerned States We are not against conversion But there cannot be any forced conversion the court observedThe court deferred hearing on the petition as well as an impleadment application challenging its maintainability till December 5Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that forced conversion was a serious menace and a national issue and that in its affidavit the central government has mentioned about the relevant steps taken by certain statesThe affidavit informed that public order being a state subject various states Odisha Madhya Pradesh Gujarat Chhattisgarh Uttarakhand Uttar Pradesh Jharkhand Karnataka and Haryanahave passed laws seeking to curb forced conversionsThe Petitioner has in the present writ petition highlighted a large number of instances carried out in an organized systematic and sophisticated manner of conversion of vulnerable citizens in the country through fraud deception coercion allurement or other such meansIt is submitted that the right to freedom of religion does not include a fundamental right to convert other people to a particular religion The said right certainly does not include the right to convert an individual through fraud deception coercion allurement or other such means the affidavit saidThe Centre said the apex court has already held in a case that the word propagate under Article 25 of the Constitution does not envisage the right to convert a person but a right to spread ones religion by exposition of its tenetsIt said fraudulent or induced conversion impinges upon the right to freedom of conscience of an individual and hampers public order and therefore the state was well within its power to regulate or restrict itUndoubtedly the right to freedom to religion and more importantly the right to conscience of all citizens of the country is an extremely cherished and valuable right which ought to be protected by the Executive and the Legislature the Centres response saidThe meaning and purport of the word propagate falling under Article 25 of the Constitution was discussed and debated in great detail in the constituent assembly and the inclusion of the said word was passed by the constituent assembly only after the clarification that the fundamental right under Article 25 would not include the right to convert it addedUpadhyay told the court he has filed an additional affidavit in the matter In the affidavit he sought directions to review visa rules for religious preachers and foreign missionaries review foreign contribution rules for NGOs and for taking steps to control hawala fundingThe top court had on September 23 sought responses from the Centre and others to the petitionEarlier this month terming forced religious conversion a very serious issue the court had taken a serious note of proselytization through deception allurement and intimidation and asked the Centre to step in and make sincere efforts to check the practiceUpadhyay has submitted in his plea that forced religious conversion is a nationwide problem which needs to be tackled immediatelyThe injury caused to the citizens is extremely large because there is not even one district which is free of religious conversion by hook and crook the plea has submittedIncidents are reported every week throughout the country where conversion is done by intimidating threatening deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits and also by using black magic superstition miracles but Centre and States have not taken stringent steps to stop this menace said the plea filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar DubeyThe plea has also sought directions to the Law Commission of India to prepare a report as well as a Bill to control religious conversion by intimidation and monetary benefitsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever