Supreme Court Issues Notice to Rajasthan on Plea Challenging Anti-Conversion Act

Delhi, Nov 18, 2025: The Supreme Court today sought a response from the Rajasthan government and others to a petition challenging the validity of the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2025. A bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta issued notice to the state and additional respondents, asking them to file their replies to the plea submitted by the Jaipur Catholic Welfare Society.

Senior Advocate Rajeev Dhavan, representing the petitioner, said, “We have raised issues of legislative competence as well as excessiveness in terms of constitutional limitations.” The bench noted that petitions raising a similar issue were already pending before the Apex Court. Dhavan responded, “We have raised an entirely different question.”

“We will issue notice and call the other side and then we will hear you,” Justice Nath said, as the bench issued notice on the plea and listed the matter for hearing in four weeks. The court also tagged the plea with the pending petitions concerning the same issue.

On 3 November, the Apex Court agreed to hear two petitions challenging the validity of several provisions of the law against illegal religious conversions that came into force in Rajasthan. It issued notice to the Rajasthan government, seeking its response within four weeks to the pleas against the 2025 Act, which the state Assembly passed in September.

Also in September, another bench of the Apex Court sought the position of several states on separate pleas seeking a stay on their respective anti-conversion laws. The court made it clear that it would consider the request to stay the operation of such laws once the replies were filed.

The bench was then dealing with a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of anti-conversion laws enacted by several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, and Karnataka.

Source: Verdictum