The first Christian to face charges under an 'anti-conversion law' has now become the first to be acquitted after a four-year legal battle in Uttarakhand.
Judicial Magistrate Anju of the Ramnagar Court in Nainital District issued the acquittal order on September 17, officially clearing Pastor Nandan Singh, also known as Narendra Singh and widely recognized as Pastor Nandan Singh Bisht, of all charges under Sections 3 and 5 of the Religious Freedom Act, 2018.
“This was the first such acquittal since the legislation came into force in 2018,” stated Rajesh Kumar, a friend of Pastor Bisht, who added that the pastor was the first Christian arrested in Uttarakhand under these laws four years ago.
The pastor’s legal ordeal began on October 2, 2021, when he and around 25 Christians had gathered for an overnight prayer meeting at his rented house. About 30 to 35 Hindus, mainly from nearby villages, barged into his home at about 10 a.m.
“They tore all the posters with Bible verses, four Bibles, threw all our song books, broke all the things inside the prayer hall,” Bisht told Morning Star News. “They slapped me twice and asked me, ‘You are a Thakore [by Hindu caste], why are you converting people?’”
Instead of arresting the attackers, police detained Pastor Bisht, his wife, and their 3-year-old daughter, taking them to Ramnagar Police Station, where a case was registered following a written complaint by Jagdish Chandra.
Police filed charges under First Information Report No. 567 dated October 2, 2021, and turned the detention into an arrest. Although his wife and daughter were released, Bisht appeared before the magistrate the next day and was imprisoned in Haldwani.
Investigator Sub-Inspector Narendra Kumar prepared the charge sheet, and the court took formal cognizance on November 12, 2021. Nearly two years passed before formal charges were filed on September 12, 2023, prompting the pastor to deny all allegations and request a full trial.
Throughout the four-year trial, Pastor Bisht lost more than he can even describe. “My wife was four months pregnant when I was arrested,” he told Morning Star News. “I couldn’t give her proper care, and because of all the stress and tension of my arrest and case, we lost our baby.”
His friend Rajesh Kumar, who supported him throughout the legal proceedings, commented on the heavy toll the case took on the pastor.
“Despite the absence of any victim or concrete evidence of illegal conversion activities, Bisht spent eight days in custody and endured nearly four years of legal proceedings before being cleared,” Kumar explained. “Bisht couldn’t continue his church fellowship during this time. He could not take up a job because he had to present himself in court once or twice a month. Besides, nobody gives you a job when they know you are on trial for a crime. He and his family faced severe social stigma all these years.”
This acquittal marks a significant milestone for religious liberty in Uttarakhand.
The detailed reasoning in the 16-page judgment provides important precedents regarding the standing requirement under Section 4 and the necessity of identifying specific aggrieved persons in conversion cases.
The court’s focus on constitutional protections for religious practice and the need for concrete evidence rather than suspicion sets a vital legal standard.
“The judgment makes clear that practicing one’s faith, including holding prayer gatherings, does not automatically constitute illegal conversion activity under the law,” concluded Rajesh Kumar.
Open Doors, a Christian support organization, ranks India 11th on its 2025 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the harshest persecution. India stood at 31st place in 2013 but has steadily fallen in the rankings since Narendra Modi came to power as prime minister.
