E. D. Devadason, a constitutional expert from Madras, says the State has absolutely no right to interfere with conversions. Any interference amounts to constitutional violation which can be challenged in the court.
The Hindu leaders who met in Ramanathpuram have called for a ban on conversions. An effort was made by the Janata Government to ban conversions through the RSS- sponsored Freedom of Religion Bill to curb Christians. But it didn’t succeed. A similar demand is being made now. But the Constitution does not section such curbs.
Devadason says: When the Supreme Court in the context of the Emergency held that the right to propagate does not include the right to convert, it was sought to be corrected by jurists like Jethmalani by introducing a Bill in Parliament called The Freedom of Religion (Removal of Restriction) Bill to clarify that the right to propagate a religion is incomplete without winning any adherents to that religion. The word ‘propagate’ is used by all religions and indicates positive action. Conversion is a result of such propagation.
Therefore, as long as the Constitution guarantees the right to propagate, the people have the right to dispute the efficacy of one religion and extol the efficacy of another and to restrict such a right is unconstitutional.
The State has absolutely no responsibility to watch the working of the conscience of any citizen and only a totalitarian State seeks to do so. Propagation necessarily postulates winning over others from another fold. No one can say that a person has a right to argue but not to convince the other. In fact restriction on the right of conversion negates the secular character of the State as enshrined in the Preamble and infringes one of the basic features of the Constitutions. Policing of this activity itself is an infringement of the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under the Constitution.
