Catholic Church leaders have welcomed India’s top court dis-missing a petition that sought a federal law to check religious conversion and black magic.
The Supreme Court of India on April 9 said persons above 18 years of age are free to choose their religion and dismissed a plea seeking directions to the federal government to enact a nationwide law against religious conversion.
The petition in the form of public interest litigation was filed by Ashwini Upadhyay, a Supreme Court lawyer and a member of the ruling pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
A bench of Justices R.F. Nariman, B.R. Gavai and Hrishikesh Roy disagreed with the demand, directed the petitioner to withdraw it and threatened to impose heavy costs if he persisted with it.
The court directions are “in the right spirit” of the constitution, which guarantees every citizen the right to profess, practice and propagate a religion of choice, said Father Babu Joseph, former spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.
“Several states have enacted laws curbing the religious freedom guaranteed by the constitution and it has had an adverse impact on several communities, especially Christians,” he told.