Recently, the Uttar Pradesh Assembly passed the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Amendment Bill 2024, making the law stricter in cases of fraudulent or forced conversion.
- If the Anti-Conversion Bill is adopted by the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, other states with similar anti-conversion laws could follow suit and introduce similar amendments to strengthen their application.
About UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Amendment Bill 2024
- Aim: To protect certain groups of people, including minors, people with disabilities, women, and persons belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities.
- Need: Existing penal provisions under the Act “are not sufficient to prevent and control religious conversion and mass conversion” of persons belonging to the above mentioned groups.
- This reflects the view expressed by the Allahabad High Court that “unlawful activity of conversion of people of SC/ST castes and economically poor persons into Christianity is being done at rampant pace throughout the State of Uttar Pradesh.”
- Significance: The Bill will “resolve certain difficulties that have arisen in the past in various cases regarding legal matters under Section 4 of the Act”.
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About Changes the Bill brings in
Following changes have been proposed in the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2024:
| ‘Any Aggrieved Person’ is now ‘Any Person’ |
The Bill revised provision states that “any person” can file an FIR related to violation of the Act in the manner provided under the new law governing criminal procedure, the Bharatiya Nagarisk Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS).
- BNSS Act: Section 173 of the BNSS deals with the registration of an FIR, information regarding a crime can be given to the officer in charge of a police station “irrespective of the area where the offence is committed”. This means that any individual can approach any police station to file an FIR for alleged crimes under the Act.
Need to Bring Change: In 2023, the Allahabad High Court held that the phrase “Any aggrieved person” does not mean that anyone can file an FIR for unlawful conversion.
- Jose Papachen vs. State of Uttar Pradesh, September 2023: The Court held that “any aggrieved person” can only refer to someone who is “personally aggrieved by his or her fraudulent conversion”.
- Fatehpur Mass Conversion case, February 2023: The Court gave the exact same analysis of Section 4.
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| Strict Bail Conditions |
For those accused under Section 3, the Bill proposes to introduce stringent bail conditions that are akin to the bail conditions under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
- Section 3 of the Act punishes religious conversion through “misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means”, which also includes “conversion by solemnization of marriage or relationship in the nature of marriage” through the use of the listed illegal means.
Newly Proposed Section 7: Under this Section, an accused cannot be released on bail unless following two conditions have been met.
- The public prosecutor (the advocate representing the state government prosecuting the crime) must be given the opportunity to oppose the bail application.
- The court must be satisfied that there are “reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilty of such an offence and that no offence can be committed by him while on bail”.
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| Enhancement of Punishments |
The Bill proposes to enhance the punishments, increasing the jail-time and fine to:
- 3-10 years imprisonment and a fine of at least Rs. 50,000 for the base offence
- 5-14 years imprisonment and a fine of at least Rs. 1,00,000 if the victim is a minor, a woman, from an SC or ST community, has a physical disability, or has a mental illness
- 7-14 years imprisonment and a fine of at least Rs. 1,00,000 in cases of mass conversion
- 20 years imprisonment which can be extended to life for unlawful conversion through marriage
Inclusion of New Categories: If the accused has received money from “foreign or illegal institutions” in connection with unlawful conversion, they may be punished with 7-14 years imprisonment and a fine of at least Rs. 10,00,000.
- If the accused causes any person to “fear of his life or property, assaults or uses force, promises or instigates marriage, conspires or induced any minor, woman or person to traffics or otherwise sells them” shall be punished with a minimum 20 years imprisonment which can be extended to life imprisonment.
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About Religious Conversions
Religious conversion involves abandoning adherence to one denomination and affiliating with another. It involves adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religion denomination to the exclusion of the others.
- Constitutional Rights: According to the various Judicial Pronouncements, forceful religious conversion is against the basic Fundamental Rights of the Indian Constitution.
- Article 14 (Equality before the Law),
- Article 21 (Right to Life),
- Article 25 (Freedom of Conscience & Freedom to Profess, Practice & Propagate the Religion)
- Need for an Anti-Conversion Law in India:
- To Protect Traditions and Beliefs: To prevent conflicts arising from religious conversions while maintaining the influence of specific religions.
- To Protect Social Conflicts: Anti-Conversion laws are necessary to prevent conflicts within a community that can arise from religious conversions.
- To Address Concerns of Fraudulent Marriages: In the recent past, various cases have come to the notice whereby people marry persons of other religion by either misrepresentation or concealment of their own religion and after getting married they force such other person to convert to their own religion.
- Judicial Acknowledgement: The Supreme Court has acknowledged incidents of forced conversion, highlighting their violation of an individual’s right to freedom of religion and impact on the secular society’s foundation.
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About Uttar Pradesh’s Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021
It is an anti-conversion law that was enacted in 2021 and applicable to the state of UP.
- Provisions of the Act:
- Prohibition on Conversion: The Act prohibits the religious conversion of a person by the use of “misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means”.
- Section 3(1) of the act states that “conversion by solemnization of marriage or relationship in the nature of marriage” would also qualify as illegal conversion.
- Section 6 of the act bars any marriage done for the sole purpose of unlawful conversion and states that such marriages shall be declared “void”.
- On Lodging FIR: Section 4 of this Act states that any aggrieved person or their relatives can lodge an FIR for illegal conversion which contravenes the provisions of Section 3.
- Punishment: Those found guilty under Section 3 can be punished as per Section 5 of the anti-conversion law.
- 1-5 years imprisonment, and a fine of at least Rs. 15,000.
- If the victim is a woman, a minor or a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, the punishment increases to 2-10 years with a fine of at least Rs. 25,000.
- In cases of mass conversion, the punishment becomes 3-10 years, and a fine of at least Rs. 50,000.
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July 31, 2024
