LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court has said that distributing copies of the Bible and other religious books cannot be called an allurement for religious conversion, attracting offences under the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act 2021 (UPPUCRA-2021).
While granting bail to two accused persons who were booked for alluring persons of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Community for conversion to Christianity, the bench of Justice Shamim Ahmad said that an unaffected person could not lodge an FIR for offences under this UPPUCRA-2021.
The bench also passed the order allowing an appeal filed against rejection of bail pleas of the two accused persons named Jose Papachen and Sheeja. The appellants were sent to jail in pursuance to an FIR lodged by a BJP office-bearer with Jalalpur police station in Ambedkar Nagar district on January 24, 2023. The complainant had alleged that the two accused persons were alluring members of the SC/ST community for getting converted to Christianity.
In his order, Justice Ahmad observed, “Providing teaching, distributing Holy Bible books, encouraging children for getting education, organizing assembly of villagers and performing Bhandara, instructing the villagers not to enter into altercation and not to take liquor do not amount to allurement under the 2021 Act.”
The bench further said that the UPPUCRA-2021 provided that only an aggrieved person or his family could lodge the FIR in the matter of conversion but in the present case, the FIR was lodged by a BJP office bearer.
It was argued on behalf of the appellants that they were innocent and were implicated due to political rivalry. It was also said that helping people was not an allurement and in fact it was a failure on the part of the state to provide basic amenities to people in need.