Allahabad HC orders ₹25 lakh compensation for sisters illegally confined after conversion to Islam

The Allahabad High Court has ordered ₹25 lakh compensation for two adult sisters who were illegally confined by their father after they converted from Hinduism to Islam, holding that parental disapproval cannot override an adult’s constitutional rights to liberty and freedom of conscience. Justice Sandeep Jain directed the women’s father and the Uttar Pradesh government to jointly pay the compensation after finding that the sisters had been forcibly confined at their parental home against their wishes for a prolonged period beginning in 2021. The order was passed on August 6.

The court held that the state machinery had failed to discharge its constitutional obligations and, instead of securing the women’s liberty, had effectively allowed their detention to continue under the cover of criminal proceedings. It declared that the sisters were free to live wherever and with whomever they chose, without interference from their father, any other person or state authorities. The Uttar Pradesh government was also directed to ensure their protection. The court further ordered their father to return their passports, educational certificates, identity documents, bank passbooks, cheque books, documents relating to their conversion and other personal belongings within seven days.

Adult’s liberty cannot yield to parental disapproval

The case arose from a habeas corpus petition concerning the two women, aged around 20 and 35. They told the court that they had voluntarily renounced Hinduism and embraced Islam and intended to marry according to their own choices. Their father had allegedly lodged a kidnapping case to prevent them from acting on those decisions. Police subsequently added provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, to the FIR. The petitioners alleged that the women were being illegally confined by their father in connivance with the police. The court noted that neither woman was accused of committing any offence.

On July 30, the High Court directed the police and the father to produce both women before it so the judge could personally ascertain whether their decisions had been voluntary. Following the interaction, the court recorded that both consistently maintained that they had embraced Islam voluntarily as a matter of personal faith and conscience.

'No evidence of coercion or fraud in religious conversion'

The court found nothing on record indicating that their religious conversion resulted from coercion, fraud, undue influence or allurement. It held that as adult women, they possessed a constitutional right to determine the course of their lives, including choosing their religion, deciding where they wanted to live and determining with whom they wished to reside. The court linked these freedoms to the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and freedom of conscience under Article 25 of the Constitution.

The High Court also rejected the Uttar Pradesh government’s argument that the conversion could be connected to a wider conspiracy threatening the country’s sovereignty, integrity and unity. It said no material had been placed before it to show that the women’s voluntary exercise of religious choice constituted such a threat. The court said an assumption that the requirements of the state’s anti-conversion law had not been complied with could not justify keeping two adult women confined against their wishes.

Observing that the sisters were educated adults legally capable of making their own decisions, the court said prolonged coercive confinement was incompatible with constitutional democracy. It stressed that parents do not have the authority to confine their adult children merely because they disagree with their religious beliefs or personal choices, adding that individual liberty cannot be subordinated to parental authority, social morality or majoritarian sentiment.