Indian court calls a halt to Christian religious meets

UCA News reporter

Christians participate in a prayer meeting at Kanpur, a city in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. (Photo: Facebook)

A top court in a northern Indian state has called for a stop to Christian religious meetings saying they may lead to the conversion of majority Hindus to Christianity.

A single bench of Allahabad High Court on July 1 told the Uttar Pradesh government to immediately stop such religious congregations… where conversion is taking place.

Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal also said that if this process is allowed to be carried out, the majority population of this country would be in the minority one day.

He reportedly made the observations while rejecting the bail plea of Kailash who was charged under the provisions of the state's stringent law that criminalizes religious conversion.

Police had booked Kailash, who was mentioned by a single name, for allegedly taking along an acquaintance from Hamirpur village to Delhi to attend a social gathering where many people converted to Christianity.

It has come to the notice of this court in several cases that unlawful activity of conversion of people of Scheduled Castes [Dalits or former untouchables] and Scheduled Tribes [indigenous tribal people] and other castes, including economically poor persons, to Christianity is being done at rampant pace throughout the state, Agarwal observed during the hearing.

He said that Article 25 of the Indian constitution provides for freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion, but it does not provide for conversion from one faith to another faith.

The word 'propagation' means to promote, but it does not mean to convert any person from his religion to another religion, Agarwal added.

The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, bans unlawful conversion through misinterpretation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement, or by any fraudulent means or by marriage.

Christian leaders say hardline Hindu groups in the state, ruled since 2017 by Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, misuse the law to file false complaints against Christians.

A C Michael, a Catholic leader based in New Delhi disagreed with the observations made by the court.

The honorable judge should have first found out if anybody was actually converted before coming to any conclusions, he told UCA News on July 2.

He said that there is not a single conviction of any Christian by a court though hundreds of cases of forceful conversion are filed against pastors and laypeople in the country.

This judge should be made to withdraw his observations, Michael demanded.

Uttar Pradesh is the largest and most populous state in India. It tops the other states in incidents of violence against Christians.

Christians make up a mere 0.18 percent of Uttar Pradesh's more than 200 million population, most of whom are Hindu.