Uttar Pradesh anti-conversion law cannot be a tool to harass innocent persons, says Supreme Court

Observing that criminal law cannot be used to harass innocent citizens, the Supreme Court on Friday quashed five first information reports filed in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur district over alleged mass religious conversions of Hindus to Christianity, PTI reported.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also set aside related criminal proceedings under the 2021 Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act against the vice chancellor and other officials of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences in Prayagraj.

The court quashed the FIRs that accused Vice Chancellor Rajendra Bihari Lal and others of participating in or facilitating forced conversions.

Pardiwala said that the FIRs had “legal infirmities, procedural lapses and lack of credible material” and ruled that continuing the prosecution would amount to a “travesty of justice”, PTI reported.

“The criminal law cannot be allowed to be made a tool of harassment of innocent persons, allowing prosecuting agencies to initiate prosecution at their whims and fancy, on the basis of completely incredulous material,” PTI quoted the bench as saying while referring to “glaring infirmities” in the registration of one of the FIRs filed in 2022.

It added that merely organising religious events or engaging in charitable activities did not amount to a criminal offence under either the...

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