5/27/2025 India (International Christian Concern) — The Supreme Court of India (SC) on May 23 quashed criminal proceedings initiated under the Gangster Act against the director of a reputed agricultural university in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), who is accused, among other things, of religious conversions.

The criminal proceedings were part of two first information reports (FIRs) filed against Dr. Vinod Bihari Lal, vice chancellor of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Science (SHUATS), Prayagraj, UP.

These FIRs against Lal and a few others were registered more than four years ago under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, along with other accusations of alleged mass conversions to Christianity.

The SC said that the FIR and charge sheet were based on a gang chart rubber-stamped by authorities without any independent application.

The manner in which police and district administration sanctioned the gang chart amounted to placing liberty at the mercy of rubber-stamp bureaucracy, the SC noted.

The SHUATS case had drawn nationwide attention, as the university is a reputable institution in the country, and many Christian organizations had maintained that it was an effort to close the university, which is associated with Christianity.

This latest ruling came after the SC had, on Oct. 18, 2024, reserved judgment in a batch of petitions seeking quashing of criminal proceedings against Lal and other SHUATS officials in this connection.

With this decision, the court has emphasized the importance of safeguarding individuals from wrongful prosecution and reinforced that legal provisions must not be misused to target individuals without substantial grounds, thus providing much-needed relief to Lal.

Notably, nearly 27 cases were registered against Lal at various points in time up to the end of 2023, on complaints from multiple individuals, including local leaders from the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Prayagraj, Lucknow, Fatehpur, and Pratapgarh districts of UP. The BJP is the ruling party in the state.

Charges against Lal included mass conversion, fake appointments and financial irregularities, illegally transferring, using names and addresses of dead people for personal gains, and fraud of arms licenses.

Lal was then remanded to judicial custody but received relief from both the High Court and the SC in many of the cases amidst lengthy and drawn-out legal battles.

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