The Supreme Court has expunged the observations made by the Allahabad High Court that majority population of the country would become minority one day if religious congregations, where conversions took place, were not stopped.
On Friday, the order was passed by a bench comprising of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Manoj Misra, after senior advocate Siddharth Aggarwal, representing the petitioner, Kailash, and Garima Prashad, Additional Advocate General of Uttar Pradesh, argued the case of bail of Kailash, against whom a case had been filed under provisions of the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act and under section 365 (Kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) of the Indian Penal Code.
“Bearing in mind that the petitioner was in custody since May 21, 2023, the charge sheet was submitted on July 19, 2023, we confirm the order dated August 27, 2024, enlarging the petitioner on bail, subject to the terms and conditions already specified. However, the petitioner shall cooperate in the investigation,” the apex court observed.
“We clarify that the general observations made by the high court had no bearing on the facts of the present case and were, therefore, not required for the disposal of the case. The observations, therefore, shall not be cited in any other case or proceeding in the high court or in any other court,” the bench further said.
Kailash, accused of being involved in the religious conversion of several people from a village in Prayagraj, was denied bail by the High Court on July 1. The judge, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal, had observed that religious congregations where conversions take place should be stopped immediately, or else the country’s majority population will become a minority one day.
The high court, during hearing the bail plea, had noted the allegations that the applicant had been taking people from Hamirpur in Uttar Pradesh to a religious congregation in Delhi for conversion and said, “If this process is allowed to be carried out, the majority population of this country would be in minority one day…”
The high court had denied bail to the accused while observing that such conversions were against the Constitution which only provided “freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion”.
It had further said, “It has come into notice of this court in several cases that unlawful activity of conversion of people of SC/ST castes and other castes including economically poor persons into Christianity is being done at rampant pace throughout the state of Uttar Pradesh.”
