SC petition by 19-yr-old dalit accuses shelter home of fraudulent conversion

New Delhi: A 19-year-old man belonging to the Scheduled Caste community has moved the Supreme Court, urging to be made a party in a batch of pleas relating to the issue of religious conversions in the country.

The plea filed by Abhishek Khateek claimed that he is a victim of coercive and fraudulent religious conversion in a shelter home in Madhya Pradesh, where, he alleged, he was compelled to participate in Christian prayers, prevented from visiting temples and subjected to psychological and religious coercion.

The petition, filed through advocate Ashwani Dubey, submitted that his present application arises out of an FIR filed at a police station in Madhav Nagar, Katni, Madhya Pradesh, following a surprise inspection conducted by Priyank Kanoongo, then Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, at Asha Kiran Home, Jhinjhari.

During the inspection, the statements of four children, including Khateek, were recorded in which grave violations of child protection norms and instances of coercive religious conversion were disclosed, the plea claimed.

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The petition claimed that the children had said that despite being Hindus, they were compelled to participate in Christian prayers, prevented from visiting temples and subjected to psychological and religious coercion under the management of the said child home.

“The applicant belongs to a Scheduled Caste Hindu community and is a resident of Madhya Pradesh. He has been a victim of coercive and fraudulent religious conversion, and 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 petition said.

The top court had in 2023 asked the parties challenging the anti-conversion laws of several states to file a common petition for the transfer of cases on the issue from the high courts to the apex court.

It noted there were at least five such pleas “before the Allahabad High Court; seven before the Madhya Pradesh High Court; two each before the Gujarat and Jharkhand High Courts; three before the Himachal Pradesh and one each before Karnataka and Uttarakhand High Courts”.

There were also two separate petitions filed by the states of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh challenging the interim orders of the respective high courts staying certain provisions of their laws on conversion.

Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind also moved the apex court against the anti-conversion laws of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, and argued they were enacted to “harass” interfaith couples and implicate them in criminal cases.

The Muslim body said the provisions of all the local laws of the five states force a person to disclose their faith and, consequently, invade their privacy.

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