'Criminal Law Not Tool To Harass Innocents' : Supreme Court Quashes FIRs Against SHUATS University VC Under UP Religious Conversion Act

The Supreme Court today(October 17) quashed the FIRs and the consequential criminal proceedings under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, against the Vice Chancellor and other officials of the Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology and Science (SHUATS), Prayagraj, over alleged forced mass religious conversions of people to Christianity."The criminal law cannot be allowed to be made a tool of harassment of innocent persons, allowing prosecuting agencies to initiate prosecution at their whims and fancy, on the basis of completely incredulous material," the Court observed in the judgment.The Court noted that the FIRs were registered without bona fides. Also, the complaints were lodged by third parties, and not alleged victims.The Special Leave Petitions under Article 136 were filed against an order of the Allahabad High Court refusing to quash FIRs lodged against the Vice-Chancellor (Dr.) Rajendra Bihari Lal, Director Vinod Bihari Lal and other officials of the institute. The parties have also filed writ petitions seeking to consolidate certain FIRs and challenging them.Another is the set of writ petitions filed under Article 32 praying for the quashing of all FIRs and alternatively, transfer of all similar criminal complaints/FIRs filed across the State of Uttar Pradesh against the petitioners to Naini, Allahabad and then consolidating them all and for a stay of coercive action on them during the pendency of the present petition.A bench comprising Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra read out the conclusions as follows.a. FIR 224/2022 registered in Kotwali Police Station in Fatehpur district, dated 15.02.2022 suffers from an incurable legal defect having been lodged by a person otherwise not competent to lodge it under law as per the UP Conversion Act, as it stood then. Hence, the FIR and all consequential proceedings are quashed.b. FIR 55/2023 and FIR 60/2023, respectively lodged with the Kotwali Police Station, are quashed since they are squarely covered by TT Antony decision (which holds that multiple FIRs over the same offence are not maintainable). Any consequential proceedings emanating from the said two FIRs are also terminated.c. A writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution seeking the quashing of the FIR is maintainable as held in a catena of decisions of the Court. In the extraordinary facts and circumstances of this case, the writ petitions seeking the quashing of FIR 224/2022 and FIR 47/2023 are not only maintainable but also entertainable and are hereby allowed.d. The institution of the complaint and the quality of the materials gathered by the investigating authorities into FIR 54/2023 fail to inspire any confidence as regards the bona fides of the investigation, making it a fit case to quash the FIRs. FIR 54/2023 and all consequential proceedings are hereby quashed.g. High Court committed an error in declining to quash FIR 538/2023 to the extent no offence under the UP Conversion Act can be said to have made out, in view of the embargo contained in Section 4 of the Act. However, we clarify that in so far as alleged offences under Section 307, 386, 504 IPC are concerned, the matter requires further consideration. The writ petition is detagged for a separate hearing. The interim protection granted to the petitioners will continue till the matter is finally decided.The FIRs [224/2022, 47, 54, 55 and 60 of 2023] are for offences punishable under Sections 153A, 506, 420, 467, 468, and 471 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3 and 5(1) of The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021.Detailed report on the Court's reasoning can be read here.The Supreme Court had earlier granted interim protection from arrest to the Vice Chancellor and other officials of the SHUATS in December last year. It also stayed the arrest through in certain other cases.During a hearing in May, last year, the Court had orally observed that some parts of the UP law on religious conversions seemed to be violative of Article 25 of the Constitution.Arguments of the partiesThe petitioners have argued that they belong to a religious minority and are continuously harassed and intimidated by the Uttar Pradesh Government. It was stated that there is no evidence in support of the arguments contended by the respondents that the petitioners have engaged in forced conversions.The petitioners stated that the FIRs registered are false and frivolous and untenable in law and have been lodged to disrupt the functioning of the SHUATS. They have sought consolidation of all FIRs in this case, as according to them several FIRs have been registered in different parts of Uttar Pradesh. One set of FIRs pertains to the alleged mass conversion. Another FIR was lodged in 2023, where individual persons have alleged that they were allured to convert to Christianity on the pretext of getting cash, a job in SHUATs or getting married, in which the...

'Criminal Law Not Tool To Harass Innocents' : Supreme Court Quashes FIRs Against SHUATS University VC Under UP Religious Conversion Act

Gursimran Kaur Bakshi

The Court said that materials do not inspire confidence regarding the bona fides of the investigation.

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