Introduction
While declining the bail application of a Maulana, Mohd Shane Alam, the Allahabad High Court bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal said that any ‘religious converter’ partaking in any manner to facilitate ‘illegal conversion’, would be liable to be punished under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021. The case against Alam had been filed under the UP anti-conversion law at the Ankur Vihar Police Station in Ghaziabad (Case Crime No.183 of 2024).
As per the complainant, the accused “Amaan had physically exploited her and forced her to accept “Islam” and Nikaah was performed on March 11, 2024, performed by a ‘Religion Converter’, the applicant.” Alam pleaded that “he had only performed Nikah of the Informant with the accused Amaan and had not forcibly converted the Informant to ‘Islam’. He does not have any criminal history and is languishing in jail since June 2, 2024.” Alam also said that he had no role to play beyond providing his stamp and signature on Nikaahnama.
Justice Agarwal wrote that “Section 2(a), (b), (c), (d) & (i) of the Act, 2021 define ‘Allurement’, ‘Coercion’, ‘Conversion’, ‘Force’, ‘Religion Convertor’” and “Similarly, “Religion Convertor” means person of any religion who performs any act of conversion from one religion to another religion and by whatever name he is called such as Father, Karmkandi, Maulvi or Mulla etc.” He further explained that Section 3 of the anti-conversion law prohibits unlawful religious conversion while Section 8 mandates that necessary declaration has to be obtained before conversion from the District Magistrate (DM). These are clearly words of slur and stigma used in the judgement
The verdict notes that in present case, “the applicant, who comes under the definition of “Religion Convertor”, as defined in Section 2 (i) of Act, 2021, had got the Nikaah ceremony of the Informant performed with accused Amaan” without providing necessary declaration to the DM as required under Section 8 of the Act and the breach of this requirement is punishable under Section 5 of the given Act. The judgement reads that “…she was forced to accept ‘Islam’ and Nikaah was performed. The applicant being “Religion Convertor” is equally liable under the Act, 2021.”
Commenting on the issue of conversion and the anti-conversion legislation created by the state of Uttar Pradesh, the judge remarked that “The statement of objects and reasons for enacting this Act was to sustain the spirit of secularism in India. The Constitution of India guarantees the religious freedom to all persons which reflects the social harmony and spirit of India.” “However, in the recent past many such examples came to light where gullible persons have been converted from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by fraudulent means.”
The court dismissed the bail application of the petitioner noting that prima facie an offence under the anti-conversion law is made out against the accused.
The copy of the judgement can be found here:
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