New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued notice to five states – Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana and Jharkhand – on petitions challenging new “anti-conversion” laws brought in by these states. Notice had been issued to four other states – Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh – earlier.The lead petitioner in the cases is NGO Citizens for Peace and Justice, run by rights activist Teesta Setalvad. The petitioners are represented by senior advocate C.U. Singh.The case against the laws was originally filed in December 2019. Since then, two states that had introduced ordinances have also introduced Acts, and five more states have brought in such laws. With the court’s permission, the CPJ amended its earlier petition to reflect this change and filed a fresh petition on the five states with newer laws.The Supreme Court had agreed to hear these petitions in November 2022.Several BJP-ruled states have brought in new ‘freedom of religion’ laws, which right-wing groups have made clear are meant to tackle the bogey of ‘love jihad’. In Uttar Pradesh, for example, there have been reports of how this law is being used to harass interfaith couples, particularly Muslim men marrying Hindu women.In the same batch of petitions being heard by the Supreme Court, there are also petitions seeking action against alleged forced conversion. One of those was filed by BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay. His lawyer, senior advocate Arvind P. Datar, told the court on Friday that Upadhyay’s additional affidavit was being withdrawn since objections had been made to statements made in it.Earlier, the bench had criticised this additional affidavit, which made allegations of “mass conversion”, saying that it made objectionable remarks about minority communities.