NEW DELHI, March 20 -- I am grateful to my friend A.C. Michael for alerting me about a letter the Department of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Law and Justice circulated among the judges of the Supreme Court hearing a case about forced conversion.

The letter was signed by Arvind Kumar Sharma and it was meant for the three-member Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India and consisting of Mr Justice P.S. Narasimha and Mr Justice J.B. Pardiwala.

The letter sought four weeks' time to collect details from the state governments. It was the third such letter seeking an adjournment of the case. The government has been consistently saying that there is forced conversion to Christianity. It is the responsibility of the government to substant...