Majority will become minority if conversions at religious gatherings not stopped: Allahabad HC

If religious conversions taking place at congregations are not stopped, the majority population would become minority one day, the Allahabad High Court said on Monday, Bar and Bench reported.

Experts have refuted such claims. For example, while the Muslim growth rate is higher than that of Hindus, it is steadily coming down because the Muslim fertility rate is dropping. These trends are available in the public domain and widely reported.

This has led to a general consensus in demographic circles that the growth rates of both communities will eventually converge, with their respective populations stabilising not too far from existing levels.

On Monday, the bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal said that religious congregations where the religion of citizens are being changed should be immediately stopped, Live Law reported.

“If this process is allowed to be carried out, the majority population of this country would be in minority one day, and such religious congregations should be immediately stopped where the conversion is taking place and changing the religion of citizen of India,” Agarwal said.

The comments were made while hearing a bail plea of an accused held under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021.

The court said that Article 25 of the Constitution does not provide for religious conversion but “only freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion”.

Under Article 25, “propagation” refers to promoting a religion and not conversion of any person from one faith to another, the bench said.

The alleged unlawful conversion of persons belonging to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and economically poor backgrounds to Christianity is “being done at a rampant pace throughout” Uttar Pradesh, the court said.

The court dismissed the petition and ordered that the applicant is not entitled to a bail.