UP anti-conversion law aims to sustain spirit of secularism, says Allahabad High Court

Lucknow: In a significant judgement, the Allahabad High Court has said that the objective of the UP Anti-conversion law is to sustain the spirit of secularism in India.

A single bench comprising Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal said this while rejecting the bail application of one Ajeem who was accused of pressuring a Hindu girl to marry him and was arrested under the provisions of the Anti-conversion law.

"The basic object and reason of the enforcement of the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act was to guarantee religious freedom to all persons which reflects the social harmony and spirit of India ", the court said.

"The objective of this Act is to sustain the spirit of secularism in India ", it added.

The court said that the Constitution conferred on each individual the fundamental right to profess, practice and propagate his religion.

"However, the individual right to freedom of conscience and religion can not be extended to construe a collective right to proselytize...the right to religious freedom belongs equally to the person converting and the individual sought to be converted ", the court said.

The court pointed out that Section three of the Act protected conversion from one religion to another religion by misrepresentation, force, fraud, undue influence, coercion and allurement", the court remarked.

"In the instant case the informant is the victim herself and she has lodged an FIR alleging that she was being coerced to accept Islam by the applicant and his family members....she was kept in captivity by the applicant and was being forced by his family members to perform certain Islamic rituals which was unacceptable to her", the court said.

The court rejected the bail application stating that there was contravention of sections three and eight of the Act which was punishable under section five of the Act of 2021 and that the applicant had failed to make out a case for bail.

UP was the first state in the country to make anti conversion law which was recently amended bringing in stringent punishment including life term in certain cases.