New Delhi, June 24 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it was a "travesty of justice" that a man it granted bail to in April in a case under UP's anti-conversion law had not yet been released from jail.

A bench of Justices K V Viswanathan and N Kotiswar Singh took strong exception after the man claimed that he was not released on bail on the ground that a sub-section of a provision of Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 was not mentioned in the bail order.

The bench, therefore, directed the superintendent jailor of the district jail Ghaziabad to appear physically present before it on June 25.

Observing that this case presented a "very unfortunate scenario", the bench further directed the Director General of Prisons of Uttar Pradesh to appear through video-conferencing.

The bench noted after the apex court granted bail to the man on April 29, a trial court in Ghaziabad on May 27 issued a release order to the superintendent jailor to release the accused from custody upon execution of the personal bond, unless liable to be detained in some other matter.

"After this order was made, it is stated by the petitioner that he has been unable to secure his liberty because in the order of the (Allahabad) High Court and this court, clause (1) of section 5 of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 was omitted and because of that, the petitioner could not be released," the bench noted.

The top court called it April 29 order "categoric" and said the appellant should be released on bail during the pendency of trial in the FIR of January 3, 2024, registered with a police station at Ghaziabad, on conditions set by the trial court.

The man was booked under Section 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage etc) of the erstwhile IP and Sections 3 and 5 (Prohibition of conversion from one religion to another religion by misrepresentation, force, fraud, undue influence, coercion, allurement) of

the 2021 Act.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.