Md Ahashan, now Anil Pandit: Allahabad HC pulls ADM order rejecting voluntary conversion of Muslim to Hinduism
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On Tuesday, 12th May, the Allahabad High Court criticized an Additional District Magistrate (ADM) for repeatedly ordering police inquiries against a Muslim man who voluntarily converted to Hinduism under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021.
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The petitioner, Anil Pandit, earlier known as Mohammad Ahashan, is an Assistant Professor at Allahabad University. He followed all legal procedures required under the law for converting to Hinduism. In January 2022, he informed the authorities about his intention to convert, and in March 2022, the conversion ceremony was performed at an Arya Samaj temple.
Two police inquiry reports submitted between 2022 and 2023 clearly stated that the conversion was voluntary and done without any force, fraud, or undue influence. However, later, the ADM ordered another inquiry after the petitioner’s father-in-law filed a criminal case against him because he opposed the marriage of his daughter to the petitioner.
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The Court further directed the concerned ADM to pass an order afresh, taking a pragmatic view of the matter, considering the first two reports, favouring the petitioner, as well as the Court's own interaction with the petitioner and his wife.
Based on the later police report mentioning the criminal case and charge sheet, the ADM rejected the petitioner’s application for a conversion certificate in August 2024. The ADM also treated a financial transaction of Rs 1 lakh between the couple as evidence of undue influence.
The High Court's observations in the case To understand the matter comprehensively, the Court held a personal interaction with the petitioner as well as his wife and found that the couple had voluntarily married as per Hindu rites despite her father's opposition.
The bench took into account the wife's clarification that the monetary transaction was merely financial help from a good friend during a severe family medical emergency, as she was unemployed at the time.The petitioner also reiterated that he had a deep inclination toward Sanatan Dharma since his school days, and he had voluntarily converted at an Arya Samaj Temple. Against this backdrop, the bench referred to the 2021 Act and found that the petitioner had strictly followed the step-by-step statutory procedure under Section 8.
It also took into account that the first 2 police inquiries explicitly concluded in favour of the petitioner. Therefore, the Court questioned why the ADM directed a subsequent inquiry only upon the FIR being filed by the father of his wife, while he and his daughter were not in the picture at the time of conversion.
The bench observed that the ADM misled herself by focusing on the validity of the marriage and the criminal FIR instead of strictly verifying the procedural compliance of the conversion The Court held that requiring the police to repeatedly submit reports in response to a criminal case amounted to the ADM exercising power not vested in her under the Act.
"We do not appreciate this act and conduct of the Additional District Magistrate for the reason that the Additional District Magistrate had nothing to do with the criminal investigation matter, forcing the police to again and again submit reports taking notice of a criminal case registered against the applicant, and this amounts to exercising a power not vested with the Additional District Magistrate under the Act. The manner in which the Investigating Officer submitted the charge-sheet itself showed that no intrinsic material was collected at all to frame the applicant for the charge of illegal conversion. The Additional District Magistrate had nothing to do with the other charges levelled in the FIR regarding the woman being lured or otherwise enticed away or unduly influenced for marriage," the Court remarked.
The bench further clarified that the mere filing of a charge-sheet does not result in the indictment of an accused. It added that guilt is a subject matter of trial, and drawing a conclusive adverse inference against the petitioner based merely on a charge-sheet was erroneous in law.
The Court also dismissed the ADM's conclusion regarding the Rs 1 lakh financial help as it observed that monetary transactions between friends for medical emergencies cannot be used to draw an inference of undue influence.
Thus, granting relief to the couple, the High Court directed that the petitioner is at liberty to live his married life with his wife with dignity, and the police shall not interfere.The Court also directed that the couple should be allowed to live together with dignity and that the police should not interfere in their married life. The next hearing in the matter is scheduled for May 27, 2026.