The Allahabad High Court on Monday observed that if the current trend of religious conversions carries on then the majority of India’s population will find itself in the minority one day.
Hearing the bail plea of a person, who is accused of taking people from a village in Uttar Pradesh to a religious congregation in the name of the ceremony for the well-being and converting them to Christianity, the court observed, “Majority of population would find itself in the minority if the current trend of conversion in religious congregations is not stopped.”
With the observation, a bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal further stated that such religious congregations should be immediately stopped where the conversion is taking place and changing the religion of citizens of India.
The High Court also took note that there is a widespread practice of unlawfully converting people belonging to SC/ST and economically disadvantaged communities to Christianity across Uttar Pradesh.
“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”, the court stated.
Referring to Article 25 of the Constitution, the court emphasized that such conversions contravene its provisions. Article 25 grants freedom to practice and propagate religion, which includes the right to promote a religion but does not explicitly endorse religious conversion.
“The word ‘Propagation’ means to promote, but it does not mean to
convert any person from his religion to another religion.”
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