Indian court says groups engaged in religious conversion must be denied foreign-funding registration; its remarks on Christianity draw criticism

A two-judge bench of the Madras High Court, sitting at Madurai, has dismissed an appeal by the Kanzeon Public Charitable Trust against the government's refusal to register it under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), the law that governs foreign donations to Indian organizations. The judgment, by Justices G.R. Swaminathan and M.D. Sumathi, was delivered on Tuesday, Oct. 6, and reported by The Hindu and The New Indian Express.

The trust, founded in 2021, runs a Zen meditation centre and a Montessori school in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu. Its founder is the Rev. AMA Samy, a Jesuit priest. The Ministry of Home Affairs rejected its application because the trust described itself as non-religious. The court agreed. It held that FCRA registration "is a privilege and not a right" and that, by the trust's own account, Zen is a form of Mahayana Buddhism, so the trust is religious and should have said so, The New Indian Express reported.

The bench went further. Under the law, organizations engaged in converting people from one faith to another "shall be denied" registration, it said, adding that "if foreign funds are allowed inside to facilitate conversion activities, the nation's sovereignty would be imperilled." The judges wrote: "We specifically highlight the issue of conversion because radical Christian institutions are notorious for indulging in such activities." They also wrote: "Unlike Hinduism, which is inclusive, the Abrahamic religions are inherently exclusive," according to The New Indian Express.

The court said the conversion rule applies to every faith. "A fundamentalist Hindu Organisation engaged in Ghar Wapsi cannot be registered under FCRA," the bench said, referring to campaigns to bring converts back to Hinduism, The Hindu reported. "We hasten to clarify that we do not accuse the appellant of having any such agenda," the judges added.

Writing in the Indian weekly Indian Currents, the Rev. George Thekkekara, a lawyer, said the "radical Christian institutions" remark "casts a shadow of suspicion over Christian institutions as a whole." He also pointed to the judgment's description of Christianity as a "messianic religion" and its use of the phrase "a leopard will not change its spots." An editorial in The Justice, an Indian legal news site, agreed that the trust should have disclosed its religious character but said that on theology, "no court should be writing it." No appeal had been reported as of Oct. 10.