Supreme Court refuses urgent listing of petitions challenging anti-conversion laws
The Supreme Court today refused a plea made before it to urgently list a batch of petitions challenging the various anti-conversion laws of states across the country.
A CJI BR Gavai led bench was told today that the laws were being misused across the country. When the bench was asked to list the petitions next week, it said that the case will come up now in December.
Last month, the Supreme Court granted four weeks to the states for filing their responses on various petitions challenging the constitutional validity of anti-religious conversion laws enacted by several states in the country.
The laws under challenge include the Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2019; the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Ordinance, 2020; the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020; and a similar enactment in Uttarakhand. These statutes aim to prohibit forced or fraudulent religious conversions, but have come under intense scrutiny over alleged misuse and infringement on individual freedoms.
An impleadment application has also been filed before the Supreme Court of India by a victim of coercive and fraudulent religious conversion in the batch of petitions challenging the various anti-conversion laws of states across the country. The applicant, one Abhishek Khateek has stated that his case represents the very mischief which the impugned legislations seek to address. "His inclusion in this matter is not intended to broaden the controversy, but to provide an authentic and constitutionally relevant perspective—that of a victim whose rights these statutes are designed to protect", the application states.
Earlier, Supreme Court had while hearing pleas challenging the anti-conversion laws of various states ordered that a transfer petition shall be filed before it, for the purpose of transferring all litigation pending before the High Courts across the country.
Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind had also moved the Supreme Court against the laws promulgated for the prohibition of “love jihad” and other modes of unlawful religious conversion. The petition has been filed against the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition Of Unlawful Conversion Of Religion Act, 2021, the Uttarakhand Freedom Of Religion Act, 2018, the Himachal Pradesh Freedom Of Religion Act, 2019, the Madhya Pradesh Freedom Of Religion Act, 2021 and the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021.
The plea states that the said laws force a person to disclose his faith and thereby invade into the privacy of a person. It submits that the compulsory disclosure of one’s religion in any form amounts to violation of the right to manifest his/her beliefs as the said right includes the right not to manifest one’s beliefs. In view of the issue of love jihad, the plea submits that several times in cases of interfaith marriages, a person converts to embrace the faith of their spouse. Interfaith couples often bear the brunt of being ostracized from the community, so much so that the families engage in the crime of “honour killing”, thereby murdering their very own kith and kin, who have dared to marry outside their faith, the plea reads.
Case Title: Citizens for Justice and Peace vs. State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr. & connected matters
Mentioning Date: November 11, 2025
Bench: CJI Gavai, Justices Chandran and Anjaria