India’s Supreme Court has set the stage for a landmark constitutional review of anti-conversion laws across 12 states, as Christian bodies mount parallel legal challenges to legislation they say has been systematically weaponized against religious minorities.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi on Feb. 2 issued notices to the central government and 12 state governments on a petition filed by the National Council of Churches (NCCI) in India, marking the latest and most sweeping development in a legal battle that has been building since 2020.
The NCCI, representing approximately 14 million Christians through its network of 32 member churches, 17 regional councils, 18 national organizations and seven allied agencies, argues that these laws have been systematically weaponized to target religious minorities through false complaints, arbitrary arrests and vigilante violence.
The court directed the central and state governments to file a common counter affidavit within four weeks and ordered that the matter be placed before a three-judge bench, recognizing the constitutional importance of the issues at stake. The NCCI petition targets specific provisions and amendments in laws across Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Rajasthan states.
Laws rooted in ‘malice’
Senior attorney Meenakshi Arora, appearing for the NCCI, told the court that the state laws incentivize vigilante groups through reward systems.
“The Acts which are in challenge, they are structured in such a manner that it incentivizes certain vigilante groups to take action, because there are rewards out there,” she argued. “So even if there is really no case at all, someone will make a case, somebody will be arrested, etc., because there is a reward for those on the vigilante side.”
The petitioner has sought an immediate stay on the operation of these laws, citing rampant abuse and harassment of minorities through complaints filed by unrelated third parties without procedural safeguards.
The Rev. Asir Ebenezer, general secretary of the NCCI, said the petition was driven by widespread atrocities against vulnerable Christian communities across India and by what he described as a persistent false narrative that everything Christians do is motivated by an ulterior intent to convert. He told Christian Daily International the laws run contrary to fundamental human rights and constitutional guarantees, and that the NCCI had a clear duty to protect the interests of Christian communities in the country.
John Dayal, spokesperson for the All India Catholic Union and a veteran journalist and human rights activist, was more direct.
“These laws were never about preventing coercion or fraud, which are crimes in national law,” Dayal told Christian Daily International. “From the very first law to the most recent one, they are rooted in malice and an intent to entrap the church and criminalize evangelization.”
Churches in India take anti-conversion laws to Supreme Court | World
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