The Allahabad High Court on Thursday refused to quash a criminal case against two Class 12 students under Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion law for allegedly attempting to convert a Hindu classmate, reported The Indian Express.
Such a trend among young persons is “all the more disturbing”, said the bench of Justices JJ Munir and Tarun Saxena.
It added that the 2021 Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act was enacted to curtail such situations in society, where certain persons “thrust their religion” upon others.
The case is based on a complaint filed by the Hindu student’s brother, who alleged that his sister had been compelled to wear a burqa by the accused and was also being forced to accept Islam.
In a statement submitted to the police, the Hindu student claimed that the alleged events had taken place in December, reported Bar and Bench.
She alleged that the Muslim students forced her to wear a burqa during an outing and also tried to get her to eat non-vegetarian food. She also told the court that the Muslim students had allegedly tried to get her to accept Islam.
Three Muslim students had moved the High Court challenging the first information report.
They alleged that their Hindu classmate’s brother had been harassing one of the Muslim students. When she complained against him, he filed a complaint in retaliation, they added.
One of the students later withdrew her petition.
In its order on Thursday, the High Court dismissed the remaining two petitions.
“If this kind of a trend comes to be seen amongst young people, it is all the more disturbing,” Bar and Bench quoted the High Court as saying. “This is time in their lives when they should be thinking more towards developing their skills in different fields of education and dedicate themselves in the service of the society and the nation.”
Citing the case diary, the bench said that footage from a security camera located in an alley purportedly showed that the Hindu student was forced to wear a burqa by the petitioners.
Though the investigation was still ongoing into the matter, the material collected so far prima facie disclosed a case that required a thorough probe, it added.
The bench also said that if the state’s anti-conversion law is stopped at the very early stages of its enforcement, it would “bog down the statute and frustrate its purpose”.
However, the High Court said that “this does not mean that false implications under a new statute are to be encouraged”, the legal news portal reported.
The order came days after the High Court expressed concern about a “disturbing trend” of false FIRs being registered by third parties under Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion law.
In February, the Supreme Court also sought responses from the Centre and 12 state governments on a petition contending that anti-conversion laws in these states criminalise voluntary and conscience-based change of faith.
The petition had also argued that requiring government approval for conversion violated citizens’ right to privacy.
The Supreme Court had issued notice to the Union law ministry, and to the governments of Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.
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