'Distributing Islamic Pamphlets Near Temple Without Conversion Attempt Not an Offence': Karnataka HC Quashes FIR

The Karnataka High Court, Dharwad Bench has quashed an FIR registered against three Muslim men accused of promoting Islam and allegedly offering inducements to convert Hindus near a temple in Jamkhandi. Court held that the complaint was filed by an unrelated third party and that the accusations did not meet the legal threshold for prosecutable conversion.

The bench of Justice Venkatesh Naik T allowed the criminal petition filed by Mustafa, Alisab, and Suleman, who were booked under Sections 299, 351(2), and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 5 of the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, 2022.

The FIR was filed after on May 4, 2025, the three men were reportedly found distributing religious pamphlets and preaching about Islam in the vicinity of the Ramatheerth Temple in Jamkhandi. The complainant, a local barber named Ramesh Mallappa Navi, alleged that the men denounced Hindu deities, claimed “there is no God except Allah,” and said their goal was to convert the entire world to Islam. It was also alleged that the men threatened those who opposed them and offered jobs and material benefits as incentives to convert.

However, the High Court noted that the FIR was fundamentally flawed on two legal grounds. First, the complainant did not have the legal authority to lodge a complaint under the anti-conversion law. Section 4 of the Act limits complainants to converted individuals, or their immediate family members. Navi, being neither, lacked standing.

Second, the court observed that even if the allegations were taken at face value, there was no concrete act of conversion or attempted conversion. “There is no allegation that the petitioners converted or attempted to convert any person to another religion,” the court said. “The absence of these essential elements renders the allegations insufficient to constitute an offence under the Act," it emphasised.

Court noted that promoting or preaching religious beliefs, without coercion, allurement, fraud, or misrepresentation, does not attract penal provisions under the state’s anti- illegal conversion framework.

With these findings, court quashed the FIR and all related proceedings pending before the Additional Civil Judge and JMFC Court, Jamkhandi.

Case Title: Mustafa and Others vs State and Another

Order Date: July 17, 2025

Bench: Justice Venkatesh Naik T