The Tamil Nadu government has informed the Supreme Court that there haven’t been any instances of forced conversion in the State in recent years and that people are free to practice any religion they desire.
Tamil Nadu government in an affidavit also said that there is nothing illegal about missionaries spreading Christianity unless they employ unlawful means to do so. “Article 25 of the Constitution of India guarantees every citizen the right to propagate his religion. Therefore, the acts of missionaries spreading Christianity by itself cannot be seen as something against law. But if their act of spreading their religion is against public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of Part III of the Constitution (relating to fundamental rights), it has to be viewed seriously. As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, there has been no incidents of forceful conversion reported in the past many years,” the State government said.
Article 25 of the Indian Constitution specifically provides the right to propagate religion, it said, adding that the right to propagate religion means the right to communicate one’s religious _tenets to others by way of preaching, teaching and writing with the explicit intention of spreading the ideology of his religion.
“This may produce religious ill feeling and may lead to violence, which may place the maintenance of public order and safety at .stake. Hence, the task of the State is to maintain a balance between the right to propagate religion and the right of the public order and security of life,” it added.
The affidavit stated that Article 25 of the Constitution, therefore, grants freedom to propagate religion “subject to public order”.
“If propagation is done in any form to outrage the religious feelings of any section of the public, the same may be penalised, under section 295 A of the Indian Penal Code, for example, punishes with deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class of persons,” it added.
The response of the State government came on a PIL filed by Delhi BJP politician and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay claiming that fraudulent and deceitful religious conversion is rampant across the country, and that the Central government has failed to control its menace.
