By Manish Godha
The Bhajan Lal government of Rajasthan has introduced a Bill against religious conversion in the legislative assembly on Monday. The Bill titled The Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion Of Religion 2025 has penal provisions of up to ten years of imprisonment in cases of unlawful conversions.
The Bill introduced by the Health Minister Gajendra Singh Khivansar in its statement of Objects and Reasons said, ‘In the recent past many such examples have come to light where gullible persons have been converted from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by fraudulent means.’
The law related to right to religious freedom already exists in various States of the country, but there was no statute on the said subject in Rajasthan. In view of the above, it was decided to enact a law to provide for prohibition of unlawful conversion from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or fraudulent means or by marriage and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
“Now permission will be required for religious conversion in Rajasthan as the Bill provides that one who desires to convert his religion, shall give a declaration in a prescribed form at least sixty days in advance, to the District Magistrate that he wishes to convert his religion on his own and with his free consent. The introduced Bill also prohibits the marriages done for sole purpose of Unlawful Conversion or vice versa.”
Any marriage done for sole purpose of unlawful conversion or vice versa by the man of one religion with the woman of another religion, either by converting himself/herself before or after marriage, or by converting the woman before or after marriage, shall be declared void by the court on a petition presented by either party thereto against the other party of the marriage:All the offenses under this Act have been made cognizable and non-bailable and triable by the Court of Sessions.
The penal provisions under the Bill provides that whoever contravenes the provisions regarding a minor, a woman, or a person belonging to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe shall be punished with imprisonment for a term up to ten years and shall also be liable to fine up to rupees twenty-five thousand.While in cases of mass conversion the Bill has the provision of imprisonment for a term of three to ten years and a fine up to rupees fifty thousand.
Notably, a similar Bill was passed by the Rajasthan Assembly in the year 2008 during the tenure of Vasundhara Raje, but it was not cleared by the President of India.
This story was originally published in freepressjournal.in.
