The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has expressed serious concern about a “disturbing trend” of false cases being registered by third parties under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021.
The court has directed the additional chief secretary (Home) to file his personal affidavit ( reply) explaining the action being taken to tackle this trend.
“The Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Government of UP, shall also file his personal affidavit indicating as to what action is being taken in such cases where FIRs are being lodged left and right under the provision of the Act 2021 and subsequent thereto the FIRs turned out to be patently fallacious whereby spending valuable time of the authorities in chasing such FIRs, which do not even have any legs to stand on,” the court ordered.
The court warned that the additional chief secretary (Home) must appear in person along with the records to assist the court if he fails to file the affidavit before May 19.
A division bench of Justice Abdul Moin and Justice Pramod Kumar Srivastava passed the order on April 13 while hearing a case where three Muslim men were booked under the 2021 anti-conversion law.
The alleged victim gave a statement denying claims that she was being “enticed” by one of the accused men. Instead, she claimed that she was in love with him, and feared harassment from her relatives and third-parties.
“The statement of the victim vis-a-vis the allegations as levelled in the FIR gives rise to a disturbing trend which is being noticed time and again by the courts of law pertaining to FIRs being lodged by third parties under the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021,” the high court observed.
The court was hearing a petition seeking quashing of an FIR registered under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 at the Kotwali Nagar police station in Bahraich district.
The case was registered on the complaint of a man who alleged that his daughter was enticed by a Muslim man with the help of two others. The complainant said that there was every likelihood of the accused trying to change the religion of his daughter and to force her to marry a Muslim man.
However, the court found that the alleged victim in her statement before the magistrate has said that she is an adult and in love with the man for the past three years. It added that her statement patently belies the allegations levelled by the complainant.
However, the court found that the investigation had taken a “peculiar turn” after her statement. The court said that, prima facie, the investigating officer was acting under pressure or was ‘persuaded’ by some other factors.
The court also took note of the trend of third parties registering such cases.
The court then proceeded to summon the complainant (father of the alleged victim), asking him to explain why action be not taken against him for having lodged prima facie a patently false and frivolous FIR. It also ordered that the petitioners (accused men) shall not be arrested till further orders.
Further, the court took note of the apprehension expressed by the woman of her safety and that of her relatives after her statement.
Adequate state security shall be extended both to the petitioners (accused) as well as the victim and her family members, the court ordered listing the matter on May 19 for next hearing.
MANOJ KUMAR SINGH
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