NEW DELHI: A plea was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday in the aftermath of allegations of religious conversion and sexual harassment at a multinational company (MNC) in Nashik seeking directions to control deceitful religious conversion.
The plea was filed in the backdrop of charges of sexual harassment and allegations of forced religious conversion levelled by eight female employees at TCS' office in Nashik.
The plea filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay contended that deceitful religious conversion is not only a serious threat to sovereignty, secularism, democracy, and liberty but also a menace to fraternity, dignity, unity and national integration.
The plea has sought directions to the Centre and state government to take stringent steps to control religious conversion. It has also sought directions to the Centre and states to establish special courts to deal with religious conversion cases and declare that the sentence for the deceitful religious conversion shall be consecutive, not concurrent.
The petition stated that the Right to Freedom of Religion does not carry the right to convert others through fraud, force, coercion or cheating.
Article 25 gives freedom of conscience, profession, practice and propagation of religion, subject to public order, health and morality, it said.
"All persons will have the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion and not that all persons will have the right to freely profess, practice and propagate religion. It means the right to profess, practice and propagate religion is free to everyone, but cannot be practised absolutely or freely," it continued.
The plea said it has conditions of public order, morality and health, and the other provisions of this part.
The freedom to act upon one's religion is not absolute, it added.
"The expression does not mean that every person is free to do whatever they wish in the name of religion. Rather, it means that everyone has the right freely to profess, practise and propagate, but this freedom itself is subject to reasonable restrictions," the plea said.
The plea has been filed by Upadhyay in his pending petition seeking direction to the Centre and states to take tough steps to control fraudulent religious conversions.
Observing that religious conversion is a serious issue which should not be given a political colour, the top court in 2023 had sought the assistance of Attorney General R Venkataramani on the plea.