Anti-conversion laws: No apex court hearing for 18 months on pleas from 8 states

“Mr Kapil Sibal, senior counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents (challenge against the Gujarat law), states that in view of the pendency of the proceedings before diverse High Courts involving cognate issues, a transfer petition would be filed before this court for the purpose of clubbing and transferring the petitions for adjudication before this Court. We stand over these proceedings to 30 January, 2023. In the event that a transfer petition is filed in the meantime, it shall be listed with the present batch of petitions on the next date of listing,” the SC had said in its order.

While pleas from Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka and UP were transferred, a challenge against the Haryana law was added in July 2023. However, despite the transfer petitions filed, the cases have not been heard since. Official records of the case status shows that in six hearings since January 2023, the SC has only added newer cases connected to the issue to the batch.

Since 2020, several BJP-ruled states have passed stringent anti-conversion laws that outlaws religious conversion solely for the purpose of marriage. While a common feature of all these laws is requiring prior approval of the state for conversions, declaration of inter-faith marriages without state approval as “null and void” and reversing the burden of proof on the man that a conversion of the woman is lawful. These laws also prescribe penal consequences, including a jail term of five to ten years.

These laws then came up for challenge before various high courts. In August 2021, the Gujarat High Court stayed certain provisions of the Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021 in an interim order from the reverse burden of proof, ban on inter-faith marriages involving a conversion and the provision allowing families to challenge such a marriage. The Gujarat government had moved an appeal in the SC and it was during one such hearing that the idea of transferring all cases to SC was made.