The Bombay High Court quashed the FIR and chargesheet against four Amravati residents accused of pressuring a couple to convert to Christianity. The court held that urging conversion amounted at most to promoting religion, not insulting another faith.
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Nagpur,Oct 13, 2026 12:20 IST
The Bombay High Court has quashed an FIR and chargesheet against four Amravati residents accused of coercing a couple to convert to Christianity, holding that insisting on someone’s conversion does not amount to insulting the religious beliefs of any class. The Nagpur bench of the court said the accused were, at most, promoting their religion.
Justice M W Chandwani said the allegations did not show that the accused had outraged the religious feelings of any class of citizens or insulted any religion. The court also noted that the alleged offence took place in 2025, when there was no law in Maharashtra prohibiting conversion by way of allurement from one religion to another. It said the state’s law on protection of freedom of religion and prohibition of unlawful conversion came into force on August 28, 2026.
According to the prosecution, the accused told the complainant and his wife that they would pay them money every month, bear the educational expenses of their children and build them a house if they agreed to convert from Hinduism to Christianity. They were alleged to have pressured and insisted that the couple convert, and were booked for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class and for insulting its religion or religious beliefs.
The accused, however, argued that there was no malicious intent on their part to outrage the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India and that they had not insulted any religion. In its order dated October 6, the court said, "The applicants were merely promoting their religion and that does not mean that by doing so, they outraged the religious feelings of any class." It added that, at most, the case against them was that they pressured the complainant and his wife to convert themselves from Hinduism to Christianity, but had not hurt their religious beliefs.
The court quashed the case against Joseph Khudawant, a senior citizen, his son Victor Khudawant, daughter-in-law Elvina Khudawant and social worker Anant Mankar, all residents of Amravati. The four had sought quashing of the FIR registered against them in Amravati in January, as well as the chargesheet filed in the case, and the court has now set both aside.
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