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Forceful conversion: SC gives interim relief to V-C, five other officials
A vacation bench of justices Anirudhha Bose and KV Vishwanathan also stayed an order of Allahabad high court that directed the V-C and varsity officials to surrender by December 20
The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted Rajendra Bihari Lal, vice-chancellor (V-C) of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology and Science (SHUATS) in Allahabad, and five other officials interim protection from arrest in a case of alleged forceful religious conversion and gang rape.
A vacation bench of justices Anirudhha Bose and KV Vishwanathan also stayed an order of Allahabad high court that directed the V-C and varsity officials to surrender by December 20, and issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on a petition filed by the accused.
“There shall be a stay of operation of the impugned judgment and order dated December 11, 2023 passed by the high court of judicature at Allahabad till January 12 or until further order, whichever is earlier,” the bench said. The matter will now be heard on January 3 after the court reopens.
A former employee of the varsity last month accused the V-C, director Vinod Bihari Lal and four other varsity officials of sexual exploitation and religious conversion after offering her a job at the university.
On December 11, the high court refused to quash the criminal case against the accused and said that since the allegations are of heinous nature, they should surrender before a trial court on or before December 20 and apply for regular bail.
Issuing notice on the petition filed by the accused, the top court said: “Until that date (January 12), there shall also be an interim order protecting the petitioners from arrest in connection with FIR No.305/2023 dated November 4, 2023 registered with Bewar police station, Hamirpur district in Uttar Pradesh.”
Appearing for the accused, senior advocate Siddharth Dave said the high court order effectively deprived his clients of legal remedy to seek anticipatory bail.
“My right of anticipatory bail is gone,” Dave said, adding that the first allegation of forceful conversion is from 2005. “She joined service in 2014 and only after she was sacked from service in 2022, she filed a complaint of gang rape in November 2023,” Dave said.
The top court noted that in the past, its orders from time to time had protected SHUATS V-C from arrest in other FIRs pertaining to alleged illegal religious conversion. “Are you concerned with the operative part of the high court judgment or the reasoning given by the judges,” the bench asked Dave.
To this, the lawyer said that his immediate requirement was to obtain a stay on the judgment requiring him to surrender. He said he could not approach the top court last week as the December 11 order was uploaded on the high court website only on December 14.
In its judgment last week, a division bench of justices Rahul Chaturvedi and Mohd Azhar Husain Idrisi of the high court observed: “No God or true church or temple or mosque would approve such types of malpractices. If someone has chosen to get him converted to a different religion, then it is totally another aspect of the issue. In the instant case prevailing upon the tender mind of a young girl by providing gifts, clothing and other physical amenities and then asking her to get baptized is an unpardonable sin.”
In the FIR, the former SHUATS employee made a host of allegations, including gang rape, against the accused. She said she belongs to a lower middle class family and alleged she was trapped by another woman who took her to a church regularly.
The accused contended before the high court that the FIR was driven by malafide as the woman had been sacked.
The high court directed Hamirpur district superintendent of police to supervise the probe and ensure a final report is filed before the concerned magistrate within 90 days.
