Recently, Advocate Mr. Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay filed a petition before the Supreme Court asking for the court to reverse its direction to change the title of the case involving religious conversion. In the application, the Apex Court is urged to provide the following relief:

“...the Court may be pleased to delete the first para of the order dated 09.01.2023 [The Present petition be titled as “In Re: The Issue of Religious Conversions” henceforth] and direct the registry to use the original title of the case” i.e., ‘Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v. Union of India And Ors.’.

By an order dated 09.01.2023, a Bench comprising Justice MR Shah and Justice CT Ravikumar had directed the Registry to change the title of the main petition in the matter, filed by Advocate, Mr. Ashwini Upadhyay as “In Re: Issue of Religious Conversion”.

On September 23, 2022, the Bench had given notice in the case. It instructed the Center to produce an affidavit detailing the essential measures taken to stop religious conversions by force, allurement, and fraudulent means after recognising the seriousness of the matter. Given the seriousness of the situation, the Attorney General of India was requested to assist the Court on January 9, 2023. It was directed to change the case's title that same day.

Upadhyay asserts that the applicant is a social activist who is not involved in politics and that the court has heard PILs he filed on a number of social issues, including the creation of a special MLA-MP court for politicians involved in criminal cases, the creation of a national voter registration list, the adoption of a candidate-only constitution, the appointment of election commissioners through a collegium, the life ban on the participation of convicted individuals in elections, the inclusion of political parties under His challenge to the constitutionality of the Halal, Polygamy, Mutan, Misyar, and Sharia Court practices is mentioned in the application and was submitted to a Constitution Bench.

Case Title: In Re: The Issue Of Religious Conversion 
Citation: WP(C) No. 63 of 2022