New Delhi: At the 16th K.M. Bashir Memorial Lecture, former Supreme Court judge Justice R.F. Nariman suggested that the Supreme Court must revisit its 1977 judgment in the Reverend Stainislaus case which held that the right to propagate religion does not include the right to convert a person of another religion. Justice Nariman said that the anti-conversion laws enacted by many states draw support from this judgment.

He pointed out that secularism was a stepping stone towards achieving fraternity. He spoke at length on the basic tenets of secularism, including that all individuals are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and to ‘practice, profess and propagate religion’. In this context, Justice Nariman raised the 1977 decision of the Supreme court in the case of Reverend Stainisla

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