Petition filed against anti-conversion law, Supreme Court seeks response from Rajasthan government

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the state government seeking a response on a petition filed against the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2025. The petition came up before a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta.

The petition was filed by the People’s Union for Liberties and others, and the court sought a response from the state government. The court also clubbed the petition with other pending petitions on the same issue.

Senior Advocate Sanjay Parikh appeared for the petitioners. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that similar cases are already pending before the Supreme Court and this petition should be clubbed with them.

The petitioners have requested a declaration that the provisions of the Act are “arbitrary, unreasonable, illegal, and ultra vires the Constitution” and violate Articles 14 (equality before the law) and 21 (protection of life and personal liberty), among other articles.

On November 17, the Supreme Court sought responses from the Rajasthan government and others on a separate petition challenging the validity of the Act. On November 3, the Supreme Court agreed to hear two separate petitions challenging the validity of several provisions of the anti-conversion law enacted in Rajasthan.

In September, another bench of the court sought the stand of several states on separate petitions seeking a stay on their anti-conversion laws. The Supreme Court had then clarified that it would consider the petition seeking a stay on the implementation of such laws after the responses were filed.

At that time, the bench was considering petitions challenging the constitutional validity of anti-conversion laws enacted in several states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand and Karnataka.