UNLAWFUL RELIGIOUS CONVERSION BILL

Subject : Polity

Context : The Uttar Pradesh government gave its nod to an ordinance that makes unlawful religious conversion a non-bailable offence inviting penalties up to 10 years in prison if found to be effected for marriage or through misrepresentation, force, allurement etc.

Concept :

• Violation of the provisions of the law would invite a jail term of not less than one year extendable to five years with a fine of ₹15,000.
• However, if a minor woman or a woman from the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribes communities was converted through the said unlawful means, the jail term would be a minimum of three years and could be extended to 10 years with a fine of ₹25,000.
• Mass conversions would invite a jail term of not less than three years up to 10 years and a fine of ₹50,000, reads the operative statement on the ordinance.
• The ordinance further said that the burden to prove that a conversion was not done through misrepresentation would be on the person converting or those who facilitated it.
• A person seeking to convert to another to another religion for marriage would have to inform the district magistrate two months prior to it through a prescribed form.