Indian court asserts secularism to hold up anti-conversion law

The Allahabad High Court said the anti-conversion law aims to ensure that religious freedom is exercised responsibly

Updated: May 20, 2025 12:16 PM GMT

A state court in northern India has urged the government to maintain equal distance from all religions, emphasizing the need for an anti-conversion law to preserve public order and freedom.

“The state neither identifies with nor favors any religion, but instead must maintain a principled equidistance from all religions and faith,” said Justice Vinod Diwakar of the Allahabad High Court, the top court in the northern Uttar Pradesh state.The court said this while responding to a petition seeking direction to dismiss a criminal case against a Protestant Christian minister, who was accused of attempting to convert some people in violation of the state’s strict anti-conversion law.

The court, in its May 7 order released to the media on May 17, stated that “Indian secularism is rooted in the principle of equal respect for all religions.”

However, the court did not quash the complaint against Pastor Durga Yadav and three others, including a woman, saying the “complaint is of a serious nature.”

The court’s observations were only to emphasize the need for the state’s anti-conversion law, said Pastor Joy Mathew, based in the state.

The court said that the “presumption that one religion is inherently superior to another clearly presupposes the moral and spiritual superiority of one religion over another. Such a notion is fundamentally antithetical to the idea of secularism,” it said.

The observations came amid allegations that the state government, run by the Hindu-leaning Bharatiya Janata Party, tacitly supports violence by Hindu groups against Christians.

‘False allegations’

Yadav and others were accused of “luring innocent people from the local and distant areas into religious conversion by offering money and medical treatment” in a complaint filed in June 2024 at Kerakat police station in Jaunpur district.

The complaint accused the pastor and others of offering “money and free medical treatment” to convert and of frightening the villagers with diseases and pandemics if they failed to accept “Jesus Christ and adopt Christianity.”

The court said the charges were serious as “the exercise of religious freedom does not disrupt the societal fabric or endanger individual and communal well-being.”

The Indian constitution guarantees freedom of religion, which includes the right “to freely profess, practice, and propagate religion.” However, such rights are “subject to public order, morality, and health, which provides a constitutional foundation for regulating religious conversions that are procured through coercion, misrepresentation, or undue influence,” the court said.

Despite the court asserting that the state has no religion, “in reality the state supports majority religion [Hindu] and it has become difficult for minorities such as Christians and Muslims to organize even a religious rally,” Pastor Mathew told UCA News on May 19.

‘Misuse should end‘

Christian leader A. C. Michael said the court has “miserably failed to check the false allegations levelled against the pastors.”

Michael, a former member of the Delhi State Minority Commission based in India’s national capital, stated that after trials, courts often dismiss alleged cases of religious conversion against Christians in BJP-ruled states.

Michael told UCA News on May 19 that such cases have become “another way to harass Christians” because, in addition to the mental trauma, Christians have to spend time and resources on these cases.   

Michael also suggested challenging the High Court order in the Supreme Court, the highest court in the country, as “the High Court failed to look into whether there is any truth in the allegations.”

He expressed hope that a firm ruling from the Supreme Court against the misuse of the anti-conversion law might help put an end to framing Christians in fake conversion cases. 

The state, where Christians make up only 0.18 percent of its 200 million population, recorded 50 incidents of persecution against Christians from January to April of this year — the highest number in any state in the country — according to the ecumenical group, United Christian Forum (UCF), which monitors the persecution of Christians.

During this period, 245 attacks against Christians were reported across the country.

Christians constitute 2.3 percent of India’s population of over 1.4 billion, while more than 80 percent are Hindus.