A catholic nun who is also the principal at Sacred Heart Convent High School, Khajuraho was granted anticipatory bail by the Madhya Pradesh High Court after she was booked under the recently promulgated the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Ordinance, 2020 for alleged attempt to convert a staff member of the school to Christianity.

A single-judge Bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan, on March 16, granted bail to Sister Bhagya who is accused of having attempted to convert a former staff member who functioned as an Assistant Librarian in the said school and whose services were terminated subsequently on account of poor performance.

As per the First Information Report, the complainant’s husband, who was ailing with a mental disorder, was promised to be cured by the accused if the complainant and her family got converted to Christianity. It was also alleged that she had given the allurement that the Christian God is greater than the Hindu God.

She was charged for offences under Sections 3 and 5 of the ordinance.

Section 3 states that no person shall convert or attempt to convert either directly or otherwise any other person from one religion to another by misrepresentation, allurement, use of threat or force, undue influence, coercion or by marriage or abet or conspire such conversion.

Section 5 prescribes punishment for contravention of Section 3. A person found guilty of offence under Section 3 will be punishable with imprisonment of 1 to 5 years and fine which shall not be less than Rs. 25,000.

The Madhya Pradesh Ordinance on religious conversion, inter-faith marriage explained
The counsel for accused submitted that the complaint is false and registered only out of a sense of frustration experienced by the complainant on account of her being terminated from the service of the Convent.

In this regard, attention was drawn to a complaint preferred by the accused to Sub-divisional Magistrate stating that the complainant was terminated from the services of school on account of her poor performance and lack of documents and that she was giving threats of committing self-immolation if she is not reinstated on her job.

This complaint was sent on February 17, 2021. A similar representation was also sent to Police Station, Khajuraho on February 20, 2021. The FIR against the accused came to be registered thereafter on February 22, 2021, it was pointed out.

The Court proceeded to issue notice to the State while affording interim protection to the accused.

The applicant shall join investigation as and when required by the police, the Court ordered.

The case will be heard next on April 7.

Himachal Pradesh law, Madhya Pradesh ordinance regulating religious conversions, inter-faith marriage challenged in Supreme Court
The Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Ordinance, 2020 came into force on January 9, 2021 and seeks to regulate inter-faith marriages and religious conversions.

The ordinance was signed off by Madhya Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, who had also promulgated a very similar ordinance passed by the Uttar Pradesh cabinet in November 2020.

In fact, many of the definitions and provisions in the UP ordinance are mirrored in the MP ordinance.

Both these ordinances have been a source of controversy and petitions challenging their validity are pending before the Supreme Court.