Allahabad High Court orders ₹50,000 compensation for man jailed in false anti-conversion case

The Allahabad High Court recently quashed an FIR registered under the U.P. Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, against five persons accused of luring a Hindu woman to get converted. The court slammed the police action as “vexatious” and ordered the authorities to pay a compensation of ₹50,000 to one of the men who had to spend one-and-a-half months in jail.

The case stems from an FIR lodged by Bahraich resident Pankaj Kumar whose wife went missing from home with jewellery and cash on September 13. Mr. Kumar approached the police and said five men, named by him in the FIR, had lured his wife away. Police booked the men under Sections of the anti-conversion law and charged them with abduction.

The counsel representing Ubaid Khan, arrested by police after the incident, told the court that despite the woman recording a statement saying that she had fled on her own because of abuse, his client was not freed.

Ordering immediate release of Mr. Khan in an order on October 30, the Bench of Justices Abdul Moin and Babita Rani said the case was an example of the “State authorities falling and scrambling over each other in order to score brownie points” on the basis of the FIR.

“... after the FIR had been lodged on 13.09.2025, the petitioner No.1 was arrested on 18.09.2025 and the statement of the victim was recorded under Section 183 of the B.N.S.S., 2023 on 19.09.2025 totally falsifying the FIR yet the respondents authorities did not deem it fit to take any corrective action for release of the petitioner No.1 and he continues to languish in jail since a period of one and a half months and is still in jail... ,” the court noted.

It added that apathy shown by the authorities has compelled the court to award a cost of ₹75,000 on the State of Uttar Pradesh, of which ₹50,000 will be paid to Mr. Khan and the remaining ₹25,000 will be deposited with the Legal Aid Services of the court.

The court allowed the State to proceed against the erring officials and Mr. Kumar for registering a false case.