The Supreme Court on Friday issued a fresh notice to the Rajasthan government on a petition filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties challenging the state's anti-conversion law as being unconstitutional and violative of fundamental rights.

The petition said that, besides imposing jail terms, the law also vests power in the government to confiscate the properties of the alleged offender.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta sought the state’s response, and upon solicitor-general Tushar Mehta’s plea, tagged the matter with other petitions which had challenged similar anti-conversion laws by other states. Tushar was appearing for the Centre and some of the BJP-ruled states.

On November 5, the bench had sought the response from the Rajasthan government on a separate PIL challenging the constitutional validity of various provisions of the Rajasthan anti-conversion law, which, among other things, empowered the state to confiscate and demolish properties of the alleged offence.

The provisions had been challenged on the ground that the law was in derogation of the Supreme Court’s judgment last year, wherein the top court had ruled that there shall be no demolition of properties without giving proper notice and time to the aggrieved persons to defend themselves.

The PIL had argued that the impugned provisions constitute a direct assault on the judiciary and amount to a legislative overruling of the Supreme Court’s 2024 landmark judgment in the case titled "In Re: Directions in the Matter of Demolition of Structures (2024)" by which a bench headed by then Chief Justice B.R. Gavai had declared that no demolition or punitive action can be undertaken without judicial determination of guilt.

The petitioners had sought a stay on the state anti-conversion laws on the ground that the impugned legislation was being used to target couples involved in inter-religious marriages. The top court had refrained from staying the impugned legislation.