By Admin 
A 19-year-old girl from the Scheduled Caste community has requested to be made a party in the petitions filed in the Supreme Court on the issue of conversion. Abhishek Khatik’s petition claims that he has been a victim of forced and fraudulent conversion in a shelter home in Madhya Pradesh. They alleged they were forced to participate in Christian prayers, prevented from visiting temples. Mental and religious influence was exerted on him for this.
The petition, filed through advocate Ashwini Dubey, said that her present application is based on an FIR lodged at a police station in Madhav Nagar, Katni, Madhya Pradesh, after a surprise inspection conducted by Priyank Kanungo, the then Chairman of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, at Asha Kiran Home, Jhinjri.
The petition claims that during the inspection, statements of four children, including Abhishek Khatik, were recorded, which revealed serious violations of child protection norms and cases of forced conversion.
The petition claims that the children said that despite being Hindus, they were forced to participate in Christian prayers, were prevented from visiting temples and were subjected to psychological and religious pressure by the management of the said children’s home.
The petition said, ‘The applicant belongs to the Scheduled Caste Hindu community and is a resident of Madhya Pradesh. He has been a victim of forced and fraudulent conversion and his case is related to the same misdeed which has been addressed in the impugned law.
The petition said, ‘The purpose of their inclusion in this case is not to escalate the controversy, but to provide an authentic and constitutionally relevant perspective to the victim, whose rights these laws have been made to protect.’
In 2023, the Supreme Court had asked the petitioners challenging the anti-conversion laws of several states to file a joint petition to transfer the cases related to it from the High Courts to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court had underlined that at least five such petitions are pending before the Allahabad High Court, seven before the Madhya Pradesh High Court, two each before the Gujarat and Jharkhand High Courts, three before Himachal Pradesh and one each before the Karnataka and Uttarakhand High Courts.
Two separate petitions were also filed by the states of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, challenging the interim orders of the respective High Courts staying certain provisions of their laws related to conversion.
Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind moved the Supreme Court against the anti-conversion laws of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, arguing that they were designed to harass interfaith couples and implicate them in criminal cases.