The Supreme Court, on November 22, agreed to hear the petitions challenging the Freedom of Religious Acts introduced by some State governments against forced religious conversions.

Senior Advocate, C.U. Singh, appearing on behalf of controversial ‘activist’ Teesta Setalvad’s NGO ‘Citizens for Justice and Peace’, one of the petitioners, mentioned the pleas before a Bench consisting of the Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice Hima Kohli, and Justice J.B. Pardiwala, for urgent listing.

The petitions mentioned by the Senior Advocate, particularly, challenge the constitutional validity of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance 2020 and the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018.

Later, similar laws adopted by Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh were also challenged via an amendment application.

The petitioners have contended that the provisions of the challenged Act and Ordinance violate Article 21 of the Constitution as it empowers the State to suppress an individual’s personal liberty and impinge upon an individual’s right to freedom of choice and right to freedom of religion.

“The law which seeks to preserve the power asymmetries in the existing social hierarchies negates the concept of transformative constitutionalism by coercing an individual to lay down his treasured fundamental rights before the State-sponsored status quo. Furthermore, the law acts as a juggernaut for hateful, divisive, and schismatic propaganda by fanning communal passions, and this Hon’ble Court must denounce it and strike it down to the abyss of oblivion,” the petition reads.