ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A controversy over religious conversions that has captivated Pakistanis was resolved in dramatic fashion on Wednesday when a judge ruled that three Hindu women who converted to Islam under disputed circumstances had chosen to go with their new Muslim husbands, causing consternation among the families they left behind.

The Supreme Court had intervened in two cases in recent weeks, sequestering the women from their parents and their new husbands to consider their future without pressure. The court ruled on Wednesday that all three had freely chosen to remain Muslim.

The decision met with heavy criticism from Hindu leaders and some rights activists, who maintained that the women were forcibly converted and that their cases would make Pakistan’s already embattled minorities even more insecure.

The women have been the subject of intense media scrutiny and community pressure.

The most prominent case involved Rinkel Kumari, 19, a Hindu student who became Faryal Shah in order to marry Naveed Shah, a Muslim neighbor. In a hearing before the court on March 26, she and another woman — Lata Kumari, 29 — were given three weeks to make up their minds. Both women were then kept in a shelter in Karachi, the southern port city and provincial capital of Sindh.