New Delhi- The National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) has approached the Supreme Court with a fresh writ petition challenging the constitutional validity of anti-conversion laws in 12 states. This move follows a similar petition by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) in late 2025 targeting Rajasthan's stringent new law.

Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora, appearing for the NCCI, told a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that the laws presume adult conversions are inherently coerced or fraudulent. They require prior permission from district magistrates, impose vague definitions of terms like "allurement" and "undue influence," shift the burden of proof onto the accused, and allow unrelated third parties, including vigilante groups to file complaints without safeguards.

Arora highlighted rampant misuse, stating that reward systems in some laws encourage vigilante groups to lodge false cases, leading to arbitrary arrests, prolonged detentions, and harassment of minorities. She sought an immediate stay on the laws' operation, a halt to arrests under these provisions, and suspension of related criminal proceedings.

The Solicitor General opposed the plea. The Supreme Court tagged the petition (W.P.(C) No. 98/2026) with other pending challenges and referred the consolidated matters to a three-judge bench for deeper examination, issuing notices to the Centre and the 12 states.

This legal push comes against a backdrop of intensified violence and intimidation targeting Christians, particularly clergy and nuns, often linked to Hindu nationalist organizations.

Reports from monitoring groups indicate 2025 saw record levels of anti-Christian incidents, with hundreds of documented cases of assaults, church disruptions, threats, and vandalism, marking the fifth consecutive year of escalation. During the Christmas season alone, multiple states reported attacks: mobs vandalized decorations in Chhattisgarh's Raipur mall (linked to Bajrang Dal members), disrupted events in Madhya Pradesh, intimidated carol singers in Delhi and Kerala, and harassed believers in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere.

Specific attacks on priests and nuns have drawn widespread concern. In August 2025, a mob of around 70 suspected Bajrang Dal affiliates ambushed two Catholic priests, a catechist, and two nuns in Odisha's Jaleswar area as they returned from a village Mass, beating the men with slurs and damaging property while the nuns escaped with local help. Earlier that month, two Kerala-based nuns and a tribal Christian were arrested in Chhattisgarh on allegations of forced conversion and trafficking claims the accompanying tribal women denied, alleging coercion by extremists to confess falsely.

Advocacy organizations like International Christian Concern, Open Doors, and the Evangelical Fellowship of India have documented patterns where accusations under anti-conversion laws fuel mob violence, social boycotts, and police inaction or complicity. In tribal regions like Odisha and Chhattisgarh, Christians face burial denials, home destructions, and forced "re-conversions."

Christian leaders, including the Church of South India, have condemned the "unacceptable hostility" during Christmas 2025, urging authorities to protect minorities and uphold India's pluralistic ethos. With India ranking high on global persecution indices (No. 12 on Open Doors' 2026 World Watch List, with extreme violence scores), these developments underscore deepening tensions over religious freedom in the country.