SC grants bail to man accused of unlawful religious conversion of minor

New Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to a man accused of unlawful religious conversion of a mentally-challenged minor in Uttar Pradesh, saying it was expected of the Allahabad High Court to "muster the courage" and exercise its discretion judiciously.

While dealing with a plea against the high court's order denying bail, a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said it was conscious of the fact that grant of bail was a matter of discretion, but the discretion has to be exercised judicially keeping in mind the well settled principles of grant of bail.

"Discretion does not mean that the judge on his own whims and fancy declines bail saying conversion is something very serious," the bench said.

The top court passed the order on a plea by Maulvi Syed Shad Kazmi against whom an FIR was lodged at Kanpur Nagar district for alleged offences, including under the provision of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021.

The bench noted that the petitioner was in custody for over 11 months and his bail pleas were rejected by the trial court as well as the high court.

"We can understand that the trial court declined bail as trial courts seldom muster the courage of granting bail, be it any offence. However, at least, it was expected of the high court to muster the courage and exercise its discretion judiciously," the bench said.

"At times when the high court declines bail in the matters of the present type, it gives an impression that altogether different considerations weighed with the presiding officer ignoring the well settled principles of grant of bail," the bench noted.

It also said this matter should not have reached the apex court.

"The trial court itself should have been courageous enough to exercise its discretion and release the petitioner on bail," it said.

The bench added, "We fail to understand what harm would have befallen on the prosecution if the petitioner would have been released on bail subject to appropriate terms and conditions." It said this was one of the reasons why the high courts and now unfortunately the apex court were flooded with bail applications. "In one of the matters, we have taken the view that ordinarily once the trial commences, the court should be loath in releasing the accused on bail, but it all depends on the nature of the crime. Had it been a case of murder or any other serious offence, we would have declined (bail)," it said.

The bench noted that the trial against the petitioner was going on and seven witnesses have already been examined.

"In the present case, the trial is in progress and the prosecution witnesses are being examined, yet it is a fit case to order release of the petitioner on bail subject to terms and conditions that the trial court may deem fit to impose," the bench said.

It directed that the petitioner be released on bail subject to terms and conditions.

"The release of the petitioner should not now come in the way of the trial. Let the trial proceed expeditiously in accordance with law," the bench said.

It clarified that guilt or innocence of the accused shall be determined on the strength of the substantive evidence that may come on record and without being influenced in any manner by any of the observations made by the apex court.

The petitioner had moved the top court challenging a May 2024 order of the Allahabad High Court which denied him bail. PTI MNR ABA ARI