There is no such thing as a fundamental
right to convert any person to one's own religion and the government can
impose certain restrictions keeping in view public order, the Supreme Court
has ruled.
The court's ruling came while dismissing
a petition challenging an Orissa law requiring police verification of all
religious conversions. Citing the SC's landmark 1977 ruling in Rev Stanislaus
vs Madhya Pradesh, a Bench of Chief Justice V N Khare and Justice S B Sinha
said that ''what is freedom for one is freedom for the other, in equal
measure''.
At dispute was a 1999 provision
added to the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967, stipulating that a person
wanting to convert to a particular religion must make a personal declaration
which would be verified by the police also.
Petitioner's counsel Janardhan
Das said this provision was unwarranted as it makes a person wanting to
convert to a religion of his choice a suspect in the eyes of law. As early
as 1976, the Orissa High Court had struck down as unconstitutional the
Orissa Act. It quashed all criminal proceedings against those who were
alleged to have resorted to conversion through inducement or by ''force''
or ''fraud''.
It had also held that the Act violated
Article 25 (1) of the Constitution which guarantees propagation of religion
and conversion — something the petitioners had argued ''is a part of the
Christian religion''.
On appeal, however, the SC in 1977
overturned the decision. Recalling that judgment by a Constitution Bench
headed by the then Chief Justice A N Ray, the apex court said on Tuesday:
''What Article 25(1) grants is not the right to convert another person
to one's own religion, but to transmit or spread one's religion by an exposition
of its tenets.''
Thus, the court said, it must be
remembered that Article 25(1) guarantees ''freedom of conscience to every
citizen, and not merely to the followers of one particular religion''.
It said: ''The Article postulates that there is no fundamental right to
convert another person to one's own religion because if a person purposely
undertakes the conversion of another person to his religion, that would
impinge on the freedom of conscience guaranteed to all the citizens of
the country alike.''