Distributing Bible, encouraging children to get education do not amount to allurement for religious conversion: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court recently said that distributing copies of the Bible, encouraging children to get education, and instructing villagers not to enter into altercations do not constitute 'allurement' for religious conversion under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act 2021 (Act) [Jose Papachen & Anr v State]..Single-judge Justice Shamim Ahmad, therefore, granted bail to two persons booked under the Act for allegedly carrying out religious conversion by allurement amongst scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities (SC/ST). "There appears force in the argument of counsel for the appellants that providing good teachings, distributing Holy Bible books, encouraging children to get education, organizing assembly of villagers and performing “Bhandara” and instructing the villagers not to enter into altercation and also not to take liquor do not amount to allurement," the Court said..The Court further said that as per the Act, only an aggrieved person or his family member can lodge first information reports (FIRs) in the matter while in this case, it was Zila Mantri of the ruling party who filed the complaint."Further considering that the complainant is Zila Mantri of a ruling party and is neither the aggrieved person, his/her parents, brother, sister or any other person, who is related to him/her by blood, marriage or adoption, as provided under Section 4 of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, thus the complainant is not competent to lodge the present FIR," the Court held..Hence, the Court allowed an appeal against the denial of bail to the two accused appellants, Jose Papachen and Sheeja. .The appellants in the present case were lodged in jail following the registration of an FIR by the police, on a complaint by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionary in Ambedkar Nagar district on January 24.It was alleged that the accused persons had lured people from the SC/ST communities to convert to Christianity.In March this year, their bail request was rejected by a Special Judge hearing offences under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, prompting them to approach the High Court..The counsel for appellants argued that false allegations regarding allurement and undue influence for mass conversion were made against them. The appellants maintained that they were only providing free treatment to patients in a hospital, which cannot be said to be a temptation for mass conversion.It was submitted that the appellants were not involved in any activity of religious conversion or any attempt at religious conversion, either directly or by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or fraud.The accused-appellants were only providing good teachings, distributing copies of Bible, encouraging children to get education, organizing assemblies of villagers and performing “Bhandara” and doing other good work which cannot be termed as allurement, the counsel argued.The appellants also relied on statements of villagers recorded under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), as per which the villagers said that the appellants used to give them good teaching, distribute Bibles and encourage them to get their children educated. Pertinently, it was contended that the complainant was neither an aggrieved person nor the parent, brother, sister or any other person, related by blood, marriage or adoption to an aggrieved person as provided for under Section 4 of the Act. It was submitted that the complainant being the Zila Mantri of a ruling party, lodged the FIR to gain political goodwill although he was not competent to lodge the FIR under the Act. .The Additional Government Advocate opposed the bail plea and maintained that the accused were using psychological pressure for forceful conversions in Uttar Pradesh as part of their plan to set up a Christian State.The appellants were alluring people by undue influence to convert people from other religions to Christianity and hence, should not be granted bail, it was submitted..The Court, however, concluded that there was no material to show that the appellants had used any undue influence or allurement for the mass conversion of villagers. The Court took a view that the appellants appeared to be primarily engaged in imparting positive education to children and fostering a sense of unity among the villagers. Therefore, there was no evidence on record indicating forced conversions, the Court held. Further, the complainant had no locus to lodge the FIR, the judge added. Hence, the Court granted bail to the appellants.Advocate Vishva Nath Pratap Singh represented the appellants..[Read Order]