A view of the Supreme Court of India in New Delhi on Dec. 21, 2015. (Photo: AFP)
India's Supreme Court has restrained police from arresting a well-known Christian educationist on charges of attempting to convert people in a northern Uttar Pradesh state.
The court asked police to refrain from any “coercive proceeding” against Rajendra Bihari Lal, vice-chancellor of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences.
Senior advocate Siddharth Dave sought the court's urgent intervention to stop Lal’s arrest from a New Delhi hospital, where he is undergoing treatment for pneumonia.
“Pending further orders, there shall be a stay of coercive proceedings against the petitioner,” the court's Oct. 6 order said.
Police sought Lal's arrest in connection with two cases registered against him in July and September this year for violating the anti-conversion law, enacted by the state's pro-Hindu government in 2020.
Dave said his client “is suffering from acute severe bilateral pneumonia and was on ventilator support.”
When the Uttar Pradesh police visited the hospital on Oct. 4, doctors insisted on his further stay on medical grounds.
This is the third time this year the Supreme Court has rescued the educationist.
Lal is facing several cases in Uttar Pradesh, where his university is based.
In one case filed in the state's Fatehpur district on April 14, 2022, Lal is accused of mass religious conversion at Harihar Ganj on a Maundy Thursday.
The Uttar Pradesh police booked his brother, Vinod Bihari Lal, who serves as director at the university, in connection with the Fatehpur case.
“We are glad that the top court has once again protected him from arrest and unnecessary humiliation, especially when he is indisposed,” said a Church official based in Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier, in March and April this year, the Supreme Court had prevented police from arresting him.
When police fail to arrest him, fresh cases are being registered against Lal, the official, who did not want to be named, told UCA News on Oct. 10.
Earlier, Lal was a member of the Church of North India but now heads an independent Christian group called Yeshu Darbar (Court of Jesus) with a large number of followers in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous Indian state.
His university, earlier known as Allahabad Agricultural Institute, was founded by Presbyterian missioner Sam Higginbottom from the United States, in 1910.
In 1947, when British colonial rule ended, the institute was brought under a board of directors, comprising 14 Christian denominations, including the Catholic Church.
Uttar Pradesh, the largest Indian state headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, reported 211 incidents of persecution against Christians until August this year, according to the United Christian Forum, an ecumenical body tracking violence against Christians in the country, in its report on Sept.7.
Christians make up a mere 0.18 percent of the state's 200 million population.
