The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted interim protection from arrest to the Vice Chancellor and other higher officials of the Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology and Science (SHUATS) in a case in which they were accused of allegedly coaxing a woman to convert to Christianity by offering her job and other benefits.
A vacation bench of Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice K V Viswanathan put on hold the 11 December, 2023, Allahabad High Court order refusing to quash the FIR registered against the Vice Chancellor and other senior officials of the SHUATS and asking them to surrender before the competent court on and before 20 December and seek regular bail.
Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, formerly Allahabad Agricultural Institute, is a government-aided university in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Allahabad Agricultural Institute was founded in the year 1910 by Manchester (England)-born Christian missionary Samuel Higginbottom. It operates as an autonomous Christian minority institution under the ‘Sam Higginbottom Educational and Charitable Society,
Issuing notice and seeking reply from the Uttar Pradesh government on the petition by the Vice Chancellor and other senior officials of the SHUATS, the vacation bench posted the matter for hearing on January 5, 2024.
While staying the High Court order till 5 January 5, the vacation bench in its order said, “Issue notice. There shall be an interim order protecting the petitioners from arrest in connection with FIR number 305/2023”.
Senior advocate Siddhartha Dave appearing for the petitioners – Vice Chancellor and other higher officials – said that there was grave urgency since it involved violation of the right to anticipatory bail.
“The High Court says since this is a heinous offence the accused must surrender before the majesty of court. My right of anticipatory bail is gone. It is a university established in 1910, and if you read the FIR, it is like some corruption scam,” Dave told the bench.
Senior advocate Siddhartha Dave was assisted by advocates Prastut Dalvi, Vidhi Thaker and Pallavi Sharma.
The FIR was registered at Bewar in Hamirpur district of Uttar Pradesh against Rajendra Bihari Lal – the Vice Chancellor of SHUATS, its Director Vinod Bihari Lal, and five other officials of the institution in a case concerning an alleged attempt to convert people to Christianity.
The appeal before the top court stated that the FIR contains “baseless and unsubstantiated allegations”.
“The present impugned FIR has been lodged with malafide intention just in order to falsely implicate, harass and malign the petitioners and the University,” it added.
The incident mentioned in the impugned FIR dates back to 2005 and the present FIR was registered on 4 November, 2023 of which there is no plausible justification coming forward to explain this inordinate delay, the petitioners contended.
The High Court had on 11 December, 2023 refused to quash FIR and had observed that no true religion would approve of malpractices of religious conversion by undue force by a priest or godmen.
The allegations are that they persuaded a woman to adopt Christianity by offering her a job and other allurements.
In an FIR registered on 4 November, 2023 lodged under section 376D (gang rape) and other IPC sections, and relevant sections of the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 and Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956 in Bewar, the woman alleged that she belonged to a lower middle-class family and was trapped by another woman who took her regularly to a church.
In the FIR, she also alleged that she was regularly subjected to sexual exploitation by the accused-petitioners, and she was persuaded and pressured to bring other women for conversion and other illegal works.
However, petitioners have submitted that the victim was offered a job at SHUATS and when she was sacked from her service in 2022, she tailored a story as mentioned in the FIR, just to rope in all the higher officials of SHUATS, including the Vice Chancellor.