Supreme Court Confirms Interim Anticipatory Bail Granted To 'SHUATS' VC, Director & Others In Mass Religious Conversion Case

The Supreme Court today confirmed the interim protection relief granted to Vice Chancellor Dr. Rajendra Bihari Lal, Director Vinod Bihari Lal and others in the SHUATS (formerly Allahabad Agricultural Institute) mass religious conversion case.The Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was hearing a batch of pleas in connection with the unlawful conversion allegations against SHUATS (Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences), wherein besides anticipatory bail, reliefs of quashing of FIRs and transfer/consolidation of cases were sought.After being informed by UP Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad that in the case underlying the five anticipatory bail pleas (ie FIR No.224/2022, PS Kotwali), chargesheet had been filed without arrest, the Court passed its order confirming interim protection. At the same time, it clarified that confirmation of the interim relief shall not have a bearing on the merits of the case during trial.Besides Dr. Rajendra Bihari Lal and Vinod Bihari Lal, interim protection has been confirmed for Parminder Singh, Mathew Samuel and Rev. Paul Sigamony Rajamony.To recapitulate facts of the case, an FIR was lodged in April, 2022 on complaint by one Himanshu Dixit that about 90 persons of Hindu religion had been congregated at Evangelical Church of India, Hariharganj, Fatehpur for the purpose of conversion to Christianity. As per allegations, they were unduly influenced, coerced and lured by playing fraud and promise of easy money, etc.On receiving the information, government officers approached the place and interrogated the pastor Vijay Massiah, who allegedly disclosed that the process for conversion was going on for the last 34 days and shall be completed within 40 days. An FIR was registered under Sections 153A/506/420/467/468/471/34 IPC and Sections 3/5(1) of Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, in which 35 persons were named and 20 were unnamed.When the SHUATS VC and Director, who were not named in the FIR, approached the Allahabad High Court for anticipatory bail, their pleas were dismissed, noting that they were influential persons and their intent behind the charitable works appeared to be dubious. The concerned judge further observed that the two could not claim parity with other persons who had been released on anticipatory bail.Against the Allahabad High Court order, the VC-Director duo moved the top Court. When the matter was mentioned before a CJI DY Chandrachud-led Bench in March, 2023, notice came to be issued to State of Uttar Pradesh and arrest of the two accused was stayed pending further orders. This relief of interim protection was extended by the Supreme Court in July, 2023.As on date, there are 14 petitions emanating from 5 FIRs registered in the case, which are pending before the Supreme Court and were listed today. While the Court disposed of the anticipatory bail pleas, the other petitions were posted to a date after 6 weeks.Courtroom ExchangeOn status of investigationGarima Prashad: Officially, investigation is complete in FIR No.224 (the first FIR)...in the remaining, chargesheets have been filed where the cognizance is pending...in one case ie 47/2023, charges have been framedJustice Pardiwala: Once the chargesheet is filed in the court, cognizance is deemed to have been takenOn petitioners' grievancesSr Adv CU Singh: Multiple FIRs were filed a year later of the same incident of 14 April 2022...he has gone for quashing and for effective orders, which was rejected and therefore we are before your LordshipsSr Adv Mukta Gupta: My three quashing petitions were dismissed in the FIR registered after 1 year on the same cause of actionSr Adv Siddharth Dave: What has happened is, we approached your Lordships in one FIR...moment we get protection by your Lordships, there is subsequent FIR...then another FIR, then another FIR.. we[...] for clubbing of those FIRs...after orders are passed, other FIRs are registered...every time we have to keep coming before your Lordships for consolidationAAG Prashad (countering): My learned friend is not correctSA Dave: One second...there is multiplicity of writ petitions that are there...your Lordships have been pleased to protect us in all those writ petitions and have granted stay of our arrest in those writ petitionsSr Adv Siddharth Aggarwal: Infact, the persons who have recorded their 161 statements in the first FIR become the first informant in the second FIRJustice Pardiwala: What should we do today?SA Gupta: If 5 matters (anticipatory bail) go away, it would be easier to consolidate restOrder PassedAfter hearing the parties, Justice Pardiwala dictated the order as follows:"We are in a position to dispose of 5 petitions referred to above in the wake of some developments. The development is that in connection with FIR 224/2022, the investigation has been completed and chargesheet has been filed. The filing of the chargesheet must have culminated now in a...

Supreme Court Confirms Interim Anticipatory Bail Granted To 'SHUATS' VC, Director & Others In Mass Religious Conversion Case

Debby Jain

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