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New bench will hear Ashwini Upadhyay's Supreme Court petition opposing religious conversion.
The bench chaired by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud will now hear the Supreme Court appeal by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay challenging "forced religious conversions."
The bench led by Justice MR Shah had previously heard the PIL but had declined to discuss the maintainability of the arguments or remove statements made against minorities from it.
The cause title of the case was modified to In Re: Issue of Religious Conversions during the most recent hearing at the request of Senior Counsel Sanjay Hegde.
The petition, initially slated to be heard in February, will now be heard on Monday, January 16, before a bench consisting of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala.
The current matter has now been linked with appeals challenging the legislation prohibiting religious conversions in various States, which are currently being heard by the CJI-led bench.
The CJI-led bench had earlier requested information on the anti-conversion law cases that were pending before various High Courts so that it could decide whether or not all of these cases should be transferred to the top court.
Upadhyay's petition demanded strict action to stop forced religious conversions. According to the public interest litigation (PIL) petition, the threat of fraudulent and dishonest religious conversion is widespread throughout the nation and has gone unchecked by the Central government.
The apex court expressed its disapproval of religious conversion disguised as philanthropy at the matter's hearing on December 5, saying that such cases require an examination of the donors' motivations. The Court also said that people in India had to behave by their country's culture and Constitution.
According to the Central government's affidavit, the Constitution's inherent right to practice and spread religion does not include a fundamental right to convert individuals.
During the previous hearing, the Court sought the assistance of the Attorney General of India, R. Venkataramani on the matter.
