Supreme Court to hear petitions challenging anti-religious conversion laws in May

The Supreme Court will hear after May 13, a batch of petitions challenging anti-religious conversion laws currently enforced across the country.

These laws aim to tackle forced or unlawful religious conversions. However, critics allege that these laws are being misused to target specific religious communities and that they affect the freedom of people to choose their religion.

Noting that the matter needed to be heard in detail, the Bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar listed it for hearing in the week commencing May 13, 2025.

CJI Khanna is scheduled to retire from office on May 13.

During the brief hearing today, Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, who had earlier filed a public interest litigation (PIL) against unlawful religious conversions, defended the anti-conversion laws under challenge.

He claimed that tens of thousands of Hindus were being unlawfully converted to other religions every day. The conversion was waging a war, he added.

The Bench refused to hear his submissions today on the grounds that it was yet to hear other petitioners.

Several petitions have been filed in the Apex Court against the Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2019; the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Ordinance, 2020; the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020; and the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018.

In 2021, the Apex Court allowed the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind to intervene in the matter, after it alleged that a large number of Muslims were being harassed across the country by invoking such anti-conversion laws.