25 cases in 3 years: The anti-conversion law problem Congress refuses to fix in Karnataka

Three years after promising to repeal Karnataka’s anti-conversion law, the Congress government is no closer to keeping its promise. In that time, 25 cases have been filed under the law across the state, taking the total tally in Karnataka to 46 since the law was first passed.

The BJP government led by Basavaraj Bommai passed the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act in September 2022. In just 2021, over 30 cases of violence against Christians were reported. Many of the victims were Dalit Christians. 

Ahead of the 2023 elections, the Congress said in its manifesto that it would “repeal all unjust and other anti-people laws passed by the BJP government within one year of coming to power”. After the first Cabinet meeting on May 20, 2023, then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah reiterated this promise. 

A year later, a Congress minister told TNM that the decision to repeal the law had been buried by “institutional memory loss” — effectively forgotten by both the government and bureaucracy. 

While the repeal of the law remains uncertain, cases naturally continue to be filed under the law. 

According to RTI data, most of the 46 cases appear to be lodged against Christians. Information about seven of these cases is not publicly accessible. 

27 cases allege attempted conversion to Christianity. In at least 2 cases, Christians have been accused of demanding their partners convert after several years of marriage. 

Another twelve cases were lodged against Muslims. Six of these cases claim Muslim men married non-Muslim women to make them convert to Islam. 

An average of 11 cases have been registered each year from 2022 to 2025, the data further indicates.  

Although many of the cases are still in court, legal proceedings have concluded in a handful. 

In May 2025, three Muslim men, Mustafa, Alisab, and Suleman, were accused of conversion attempts. They were booked by the Jamkhandi police in Bagalkot district for distributing religious pamphlets near the Ramatheerth Temple in Jamkhandi.  

The three men petitioned the Karnataka High Court to quash the case. On July 17 the same year, the court held that “there is no allegation that the petitioners converted or attempted to convert any person to another religion.” 

The court also noted that the complaint had been filed by a person who had no connection to the case and pointed out that a valid criminal complaint can only be initiated by a person who has converted or an immediate family member related either by blood, marriage, adoption, or association. 

The ruling may have ramifications on similar cases filed under the Act. While analysing the publicly accessible FIRs, TNM found a pattern. 

Further analysis suggests that in at least four cases, the complainant did not appear to be connected to the person allegedly being converted.

The language in the FIRs appears remarkably similar in nature. In at least one FIR, the complainant has declared that he is a member of a Hindutva group. 

Justice Venkatesh Naik T, who heard the case, said that merely talking about one’s religious beliefs or distributing literature did not constitute an attempt to convert. 

He also said that even if the crimes alleged in the FIR are to be accepted at face value, they do not fulfil the criteria mentioned in section 3 of the Act. Section 3 prohibits the conversion of a person by the use of “misrepresentation, force, fraud, undue influence, coercion, allurement, or promise of marriage”.

In at least seven cases, someone distributing religious pamphlets in a public place is accused of attempting to convert others and of hurling abuses at other faiths.  

Demands to repeal the law

Several human rights organisations, along with Muslim and Christian groups, have demanded the repeal of the law, saying it infringes on the fundamental right to religion guaranteed in Article 25 of the Constitution. 

Many minority groups have also alleged targeted harassment and being prevented from practising their faith. 

“We are accused of using ‘allurements’ to convert people … these cases are being misused,” said Pastor Lucas, founder of the Ebenezer Gospel International Ministries in Chikkaballapura district.

Lucas told TNM that people often misused the law by filing baseless cases against minorities. He recalled how in 2022, some Hindus had stormed the church, sung bhajans to the god Rama and placed photos of Hindu gods in the church. Later, they filed complaints against the church officials and members under the anti-conversion law. 

“They commit the wrongdoing, trouble us, and then use the anti-conversion law to get cases registered against us,” Lucas said. 

Even before the law was passed, similar incidents were documented by the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in a 2021 report titled Criminalising the Practice of Faith. 

Noting the delay in repealing the law, Lucas said, “If the government does not repeal it, we are definitely planning to hold a protest.” 

Manohar Chandra, President and Convenor of the Dalit Christian Federation, said that professing and propagating a faith are core principles of secularism, guaranteed by the Constitution. 

He told TNM that the selective application of the law to Islam and Christianity, which are often termed 'foreign', reveals a stance that has “no principle, no commitment, or any form of secularism”. He described the law as a product of “Sangh Parivar governments”. 

In May 2025, the Federation of Karnataka Muslim Organisations said that repealing the law is a “constitutional necessity”. During the Karnataka Muslim Convention held in Bengaluru, the Federation also said that the law creates a “legal structure that places adult faith decisions under suspicion.” 

The Federation highlighted the harassment faced by minorities, interfaith couples, religious workers, consenting adults and others. This is a clear violation of a citizen’s fundamental rights, the Federation added. 

The Federation urged the government to review all cases filed under the Act since May 2023 and to withdraw prosecutions related to consensual adult decisions. They called for legal relief, rehabilitation, and record corrections. 

This story was written by students interning with The News Minute.

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