Former judge S. Muralidhar, who released ‘Urban Naxal’ Gautam Navlakha from house arrest, is now speaking against anti -conversion laws. He claimed that the law made to prevent greed and vigorous conversion is against ‘freedom of choice’. He said these things on 28 February 2025 during a panel discussion on the issue of anti-conversion laws made in different states of the country.
S. Muralidhar retired from the post of Chief Justice of Orissa High Court Said“This anti-conversion law is against the law of ‘Freedom of Choice’, not like a law against the conversion of any stimulation.” He said, “These laws are less to prevent forcibly changing religion, but more to take away the freedom of the people. In these laws, it is assumed that if someone adopts another religion except the religion of his birth, then there will definitely be any fear or pressure behind it. ”
He said that in these laws, the responsibility of proving this is put on the person who is accused of forcibly changing religion. They allege that these laws are against Dalits and minorities.
Muralidhar said, “Now if a Dalit wants to adopt Buddhism, he will have to tell the District Magistrate why he is doing this. First he has to tell the whole world. Such a law cannot survive in legal investigation after Puttaswamy verdict with privacy rights, as it hurts the freedom of choice, privacy and right to choose religion. ”
He also said that only the victim should complain about forcibly changing religion, but this law allows anyone to complain – like a relative or a distant cousin. This has made some gooseberg groups active, which see in the notice board or offices who want to change inter-religious marriage or religion and then intimidate the person.
These things came to light when there is a debate about the ‘Freedom of Religion Act’ in Arunachal Pradesh. This law is to save the original tribes there, but the Christian missionary groups are opposing it.
The same Justice Muralidhar gave Urban to Naxal Naxal Gautam Navlakha
Please tell that these Justice S. Muralidhar had ordered the release of ‘Urban Naxal’ Gautam Navlakha from jail while being a judge in the Delhi High Court. The case was related to the Bhima Koregaon violence case, in which the Pune police arrested Gautam Navlakha and 4 other ‘Urban Naxals’ on August 2018. Police said that these people wanted to incite people on the pretext of ‘anti -caste’ event and were plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After this, they were placed under house arrest.
In November 2018, a bench of Delhi High Court, led by Justice S. Muralidhar, quashed the lower court’s decision allowing Maharashtra Police to take Navlakha to Pune. He said that the arrest was not according to the CRPC rules. After this, Navlakha was released from house arrest.
Navlakha is said to have gone to America thrice between 2010-11 and he wrote a letter to an American judge, demanding the ISI and the Government of Pakistan to forgive Fayaz for taking money.
Not only this, Delhi Police in Mumbai on 31 December 2023 in a news circlic funding case from Gautam Navlakha Inquiry Has also done. Gautam Navlakha was asked questions about his stake in NewsClic founder Prabir Purkayastha and his stake in the company.
