New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday junked a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) questioning of "fraudulent" conversions allegedly being undertaken of Hindus and minor children and also sought a direction to the Centre to formulate a law to control it.
A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra said, "We cannot entertain the plea filed under Article 32 of the Constitution”. The top court dismissed the plea filed by Bengaluru-based Jerome Anto.
During the brief hearing, the bench noted that if there is a live challenge, we can entertain but what kind of PIL is this, PIL has become a tool and everyone is coming up (with) petitions like this. The top court noted that certain state governments had already passed laws related to unlawful conversions.
The petitioners’ counsel contended that fraudulent conversions were taking place, targeting Hindus and minors and queried the court, “What should we do….”.
The top court replied that it is not in an advisory jurisdiction and further questioned the counsel, how it could issue directions to the Centre or Law Commission of India with regard to enacting a law.
The plea sought a direction to the Centre for the introduction of the anti-conversion law in India, claiming conversion is a kind of cultural terrorism that preys upon indigenous people and their culture.
The plea said there is not even one district that is free of religious conversion by 'hook and crook and the carrot and the stick' and incidents are reported every week throughout the country where conversion is done by intimidating, threatening, deceivingly luring through gifts, but Centre has not taken stringent steps to stop this menace.
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