The Bombay High Court has held that insisting on someone's conversion does not amount to insulting the religious beliefs of any class, and quashed a case against four persons accused of coercing a couple to convert to Christianity.
The accused were at most promoting their religion but had not outraged the religious feelings of any class of citizens of the country, Justice M W Chandwani of the HC's Nagpur bench noted.
The prosecution claimed that the accused persons said they would pay the complainant and his wife each month, take care of the educational expenses of their children and also construct a house for them if they agreed to convert from Hinduism to Christianity.
The accused claimed that there was no malicious intent on their part to outrage the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India and also that they did not insult any religion.
"The applicants were merely promoting their religion and that does not mean that by doing so, they outraged the religious feelings of any class," the HC said.
At most, the case against the accused is that they pressured the complainant and his wife to convert themselves from Hinduism to Christianity but had not hurt their religious beliefs, it said in the order on October 6.
The court also took note of the fact that the alleged offence took place in 2025 when there was no law prohibiting conversion by way of allurement from one religion to another in the state.
Maharashtra has "enacted the law for protection of freedom of religion and prohibition of unlawful conversion from one religion to another, which came into force on August 28, 2026," it noted.
The court quashed the FIR and chargesheet against the four persons - Joseph Khudawant, a senior citizen, his son Victor Khudawant, daughter-in-law Elvina Khudawant and social worker Anant Mankar - all residents of Amravati.
The accused had sought quashing of the FIR registered against them in Amravati in January and also the chargesheet filed in the case.
They were alleged to have pressured and insisted that the complainant and his wife convert to Christianity. They were booked for indulging in deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class and insulting its religion or religious beliefs.