Delhi HC calls voluntary religious conversion 'a constitutional right'

The Delhi High Court on Friday said that everyone has the Right to profess any religion or choose any religion as conversion to any religion is a person's constitutional right.

A division bench of Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Tushar Rao Gedela said everyone has the Right to profess or Choose any religion.

The court also said that conversion can not be prohibited as it is a constitutional right. "Each religion has its own beliefs. If someone is forced to convert, that is different but to convert is a person's prerogative," the court noted.

The court has listed the matter for further hearing on July 25 asking the petitioner advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay to bring on record the substantial data.

The court also remarked that the data available on social media can be morphed.

The court's response came when it was hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by Upadhyay seeking "the Centre and Delhi Government to prohibit religious conversion by intimidating, threatening and deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits and by using black magic and superstition."

The petitioner had submitted that religious conversion by "the carrot and the stick and by hook or crook not only offends Articles 14, 15, 21, and 25 but is also against the principles of secularism, which is an integral part of the basic structure of the Indian Constitution."

He also marked that the Centre and Delhi Government have failed to control the menace of black magic superstition and deceitful religious conversion, though their duty under Article 51A of the Indian constitution.

He further urged the court to direct the Centre and Delhi Government for taking appropriate stringent steps to prohibit religious conversion by "the carrot and the stick and by hook or crook in order to maintain and promote fraternity assuring the dignity of an individual and unity and integrity of the nation or alternatively direct the Centre to ascertain the feasibility of appointing a committee to suggest the changes in Chapter-15 of the Indian Penal Code or to draft a Conversion of Religion Act in the spirit of the direction in Sarla Mudgal Case.

( With inputs from ANI )