Supreme Court Of India declares religious conversions are not justified

SC has said religious conversions are unjustified. This is a ground to ban 
missionaries in India. I hope Subramaniam Swami will file a petition in the SC. 
Lies, fabrications, lure of money, and deceptive tactics by rich missionaries 
from the West are creating havoc in Indian society. Unfortunately, Pope's child 
Sonia is encouraging such activities.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/312505/Conversion-has-no-justification-SC.html 

R. Singh
 
Conversion has no justification: SC
January 22, 2011   2:10:38 AM

Abraham Thomas | New Delhi

Life term for Dara upheld; 12 others free

The Supreme Court on Friday held that conversion from one religion to another 
had no justification in "secular" India as it amounted to interference in 
religious belief.

"We hope Mahatma Gandhi's vision of religion playing a positive role in bringing 
religions and communities together into an integrated prosperous nation will be 
realised. There is no justification for interfering in someone's belief through 
force, conversion or false premise that one religion is better than the other," 
the court noted. 

It was dealing with an appeal filed by Dara Singh, who was granted life sentence 
by the Orissa High Court for burning alive Australian missionary Graham Staines 
and his two sons 12 years ago.

The court upheld life sentence for Dara Singh, alias Rabindra Kumar Pal, and his 
accomplice Mahendra Hembram and acquitted the remaining 12 accused, failing to 
hold any truth in the conspiracy theory suggested by the CBI.

A Bench of Justices P Sathasivam and BS Chauhan noted, "In a country like ours — 
where discrimination on grounds of caste or religion is a taboo — taking lives 
of persons belonging to another caste or religion is bound to have a dangerous 
and reactive effect on the society at large." To this extent, it found the two 
accused guilty of snuffing out three innocent lives.

At the same time, the Bench felt that "conversion" violated the secular spirit 
of the Constitution. It said, "It is undisputed that there is no justification 
for interfering in someone's belief by way of 'use of force', provocation, 
conversion, incitement, or upon a flawed premise that one religion is better 
than the other."

Since secularism, according to the court, contained a guarantee that "the State 
shall treat all religions and religious groups equally and with equal respect 
without, in any manner, interfering with their individual right to religion, 
faith and worship."

Quoting former President KR Narayanan — who said, "Indian unity is based on a 
tradition of tolerance, which is at once a pragmatic concept for living together 
and a philosophical concept of finding truth and goodness in every religion" — 
the judgement hinged hope on the vision of Mahatma Gandhi for co-existence of 
religions as a "positive factor" to realise "equal respect for all religions".

Going through the facts of the case, the judges felt that a case for death 
penalty, warranted under the "rarest of rare" circumstances, was not made out. 
It said, "…The intention was to teach a lesson to Graham Staines about his 
religious activities, namely, converting poor tribals to Christianity." 

The incident had occurred on the intervening night of January 22-23, 1999 in a 
remote tribal village of Odisha, Manoharpur. The shocking murders had outraged 
the nation and sparked a debate on religious tolerance vis-à-vis respect for all 
religions. This had led the trial court in Odisha to award death penalty to Dara 
Singh. But the Orissa High Court reversed the finding, sentencing him to life.

Going through the evidence produced by the CBI, the Bench noted that there were 
some inconsistencies in the statements of eyewitnesses and recorded confessions. 

However, these were insufficient to work in favour of the accused. The judgement 
said, "It is relevant to point out that all eyewitnesses examined by the 
prosecution consistently stated that during occurrence (of the incident), the 
miscreants raised slogans in the name of Dara Singh ('Dara Singh zindabad')," a 
fact sufficient to nail his role in the case.

As regards Hembram, three kinds of evidence — confession given in writing, 
testimony of eyewitnesses and his conduct after the crime (he was absconding) — 
were crucial evidence to hold him and Singh guilty.

Promoting secular spirit

>Religious conversion has no justification in secular India

>Force, conversion or false premise no basis for such conversion

>Taking lives of persons of another religion bound to have dangerous 
>repercussions 
>

>Gandhi's vision of religious coexistence a ray of hope

>But case for death penalty for accused unconvincing
--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/