Allahabad High Court refuses to grant any relief in the matter of FIR lodged against accused who offered to lure to convert to Christianity. According to the case, an FIR was lodged against the Vice-Chancellor of Allahabad-based Sen Higgin Bottom University of Agricultural Technology and Sciences and seven others in which it was alleged that the accused had induced a person to convert to the Christian sect. The accused had filed a petition in the High Court demanding protection from arrest and cancellation of the FIR. Along with this, the accused demanded that Sections 3 and 5 of the Uttar Pradesh Law Against Religious Conversion Prohibition Act are against the constitution, so they should be declared unconstitutional . Section 3 of the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Conversion Act states that no person shall convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise,any other person from one religion to another by use or practice of misrepresentation, force,undue, influence, coercion, allurenment or by any fraudulent means ,It also provides that no person shall abet, convince or conspire in such conversion.Violation of the provisions of section 3 of the Act is punishable under section 5 of the Act. The case was heard by a division bench of Justice Anjani Kumar Mishra and Justice Gajendra Kumar.During the hearing, the petitioners along with the argument that Sections 3 and 5 of the Act are constitutional, presented another argument that the provisions of Sections 8 and 9 of the Act which are mandatory to be followed. they haven't been followed in fact there's been no conversion. The court, after hearing the case, concluded that sections 3 and 5 of the anti-conversion law are prima facie not unconstitutional. The court noted that the petitioners are alleged to have induced a person to convert to Christianity.Therefore, prima facie offense under Section 3 of the Anti-Conversion Act is made out against the petitioners. In such a situation, the court cannot quash the FIR unless sections 3 and 5 of the Act are declared unconstitutional as demanded by the petitioner.Court refuses protection from arrest sought by petitioners, says Section 3 of Act prima facie does not appear to be unconstitutional.
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