NEW DELHI: The Centre told the Supreme Court on Monday that religious freedom does not include a fundamental right to convert other people to a particular religion and that it certainly does not embrace the right to convert an individual through fraud, deception, coercion or allurement.

The central government said it is “cognizant of the menace” and laws that seek to control such practices are necessary to protect the cherished rights of vulnerable sections of the society including women and economically and socially backward classes. The Centre’s stand came on a short affidavit in response to a plea by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking direction to take stringent steps to control fraudulent religious conversion by “intimidation” and through “gifts and monetary benefits”.

The affidavit, filed through Deputy Secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs, asserted that the reliefs sought in the present petition would be taken up “in all seriousness” by the Union of India” and that it is “cognizant of the gravity and the seriousness of the issue raised in the present writ petition”.

A bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Raviumar, while hearing the matter, observed it was not against religious conversions but forced conversions, and asked the Centre to file a detailed affidavit on the issue after taking information from states.