I have HTML data stored in database which I wish to display as is. It keeps converting
tags to <br />
which is a behavior I do not want. I
Your html data is being "escaped." This prevents people from sending the tag to unsuspecting people at their browser.
Fix: first you'll need to determine if your issue is a "bug" or a "feature."
Escaping html is usually a good thing. Especially if the only issue is one of presentation.
For example, a work around might be to insert newline characters rather than the br element.