Overview
- The court put the Additional District Magistrate’s August 9, 2024 rejection order in abeyance and directed a fresh decision within three weeks, with the case listed for May 27, 2026.
- The petitioner had filed a declaration under Section 8 of the Uttar Pradesh anti-conversion law in January 2022 and completed Arya Samaj conversion rites in March 2022, with two early police reports finding the move voluntary.
- The ADM later sought another police report after an FIR by the woman’s father and treated a Rs 1 lakh transfer from April 2021 as proof of undue influence, conclusions the bench rejected as improper.
- The judges noted that an FIR or chargesheet is not proof of guilt and said criminal investigation material cannot replace the statute’s limited administrative inquiry into conversion declarations.
- The bench allowed the assistant professor and his wife to live together without police interference and signaled that district officials must confine reviews to the law’s process rather than repeated, ad hoc police inquiries.