New Delhi: The Rajasthan government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it was in the process of bringing in legislation against carrying out religious conversion through illegal means in the state.
“The state of Rajasthan is in the process of bringing its own legislation and till such time, it will strictly abide by the law on the subject, guidelines or the directions passed by this Hon’ble court,” the state government said in its affidavit filed in the top court. The affidavit by Additional Superintendent of Police Bharat Lal Meena was filed in a 2022 PIL.
Lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, through advocate Ashwani Dubey, had filed a PIL seeking directions to the Centre and the state governments to take “stringent steps to control fraudulent religious conversion and religious conversion by intimidation, threatening, deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits”.
The top court had said that forcible religious conversions, if true, were a “serious issue” which could affect the security of the nation, and had sought the response of the Centre.
The top court changed the cause title of the case from ‘Ashwini Upadhyay Vs State’ to “In Re: The Issue Of Religious Conversion” after apparently taking note of certain alleged derogatory remarks against a minority community made in the petition. The bench is also seized of various petitions challenging anti-conversion laws of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and some other states on the grounds that they are allegedly discriminatory towards a particular minority community.