By Scroll Staff
The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Centre and 12 state governments on a petition contending that anti-conversion laws in these states criminalise voluntary and conscience-based change of faith, The Times of India reported.
The petition has also argued that requiring government approval for conversion violates citizens’ right to privacy.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant issued notice to the Union law ministry, and to the governments of Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.
The petition was filed by the National Council of Churches in India, which submitted that the anti-conversion laws “incentivise” vigilante groups to commit acts of violence against religious minorities, The Hindu reported.
“So, even if there is no case at all against a person, someone would make a complaint and that person would be arrested,” the lawyer for the petitioner, Meenakshi Arora, argued.
Arora urged the court to stay the operation of the states’ anti-religious conversion laws.
Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the Union government had its responses ready and contended that the petitioner’s submissions were “not factually correct”, the newspaper reported.
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