New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday quashed five FIRs filed in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur district over alleged “mass religious conversions” of Hindus to Christianity, calling the cases legally flawed and a misuse of criminal law.
A Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, in a 158-page judgment, ruled that the FIRs under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, and related IPC provisions were marred by “glaring infirmities, procedural lapses, and lack of credible material.” The court said continuing the prosecution would be a “travesty of justice.”
The petitions were filed by several accused, including Rajendra Bihari Lal, Vice-Chancellor of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS). The FIRs, registered between December 2021 and January 2023, alleged that around 90 Hindus were converted to Christianity at an event held on April 14, 2022, in Fatehpur’s Evangelical Church of India.
Justice Pardiwala, writing for the Bench, noted that none of the alleged victims of conversion had approached the police, and multiple FIRs for the same incident indicated an “abuse of investigative powers.” The court further observed that criminal law should not be weaponised to harass individuals based on “incredulous material or vested interests.”
Citing its constitutional duty under Article 32, the Supreme Court said it had the power to intervene when fundamental rights were at stake and was not bound to direct petitioners to approach other courts.
However, the Bench detagged one related plea for separate adjudication but allowed interim protection for the accused to continue.
The court reaffirmed that while the UP anti-conversion law is a special statute, investigations must still adhere to due process. It emphasised that fairness in criminal proceedings is integral to the rule of law and the protection of individual liberty.