The Hon’ble Apex Court on 9th April 2021, Friday while hearing the PIL filed by Ashwini Upadhyaya seeking to control black magic, superstition & mass religious conversion of SC/STs through intimidation, threats & gifts.
The Hon’ble bench in the instant matter observed that “there is no reason as to why any person above 18 cannot choose his religion. Furthermore the Hon’ble bench also noted that there is a reason why the word “propagate” is there in the Constitution of India is incorporated”.
Moreover, the Hon’ble bench made the certain oral observation while hearing to the petitioner who filed the PIL subsequently it was held by the Hon’ble bench that “after observing the instant PIL filed the Hon’ble court believes that the PIL was nothing but a “publicity interest litigation”, which is of a “harmful kind”, additionally the Hon’ble bench also warned the petitioner that heavy costs will be imposed if the matter was pressed. Following that, the petitioner withdrew the instant petition filed before the Hon’ble court.
Besides this, the petition filed by the petitioner alleged that incidents of forceful religious conversion by “carrot and stick”, use of black magic, etc., are reported every week throughout the country and according to the petitioner, the victims of such forceful conversions were often socially and economically underprivileged people, particularly belonging to the SC-ST. Therefore, it was contended that it not only offended Articles 14, 21, 25 of the Indian Constitution but was also against the principles of secularism, which is an integral part of the basic structure of the Constitution. In the due course, it was also alleged by the petitioner that the Government has failed to take any concrete action against these menaces of the society.
