{"id":36862,"date":"2025-02-06T18:53:05","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T13:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=36862"},"modified":"2025-08-08T12:26:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T06:56:50","slug":"rajasthan-bill-against-unlawful-religious-conversions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/06-02-2025\/rajasthan-bill-against-unlawful-religious-conversions","title":{"rendered":"Rajasthan\u2019s Bill Against \u2018Unlawful\u2019 Religious Conversions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS 2\/Governance&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Recently, the Rajasthan Government introduced a bill to prevent <strong>religious conversions <\/strong>carried out by force, fraud or inducement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Rajasthan\u2019s first attempt to introduce an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/blog\/anti-conversion-laws\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/blog\/anti-conversion-laws\/\">anti-conversion law<\/a> was in 2006 but faced opposition and was returned by the President.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In 2017, Rajasthan High Court issued guidelines to prevent forcible conversions in the absence of a law.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The new Bill follows the lines of anti-conversion laws already present in states like Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Provisions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Unlawful conversion: <\/strong>It includes<strong> <\/strong>conversion through coercion, force, allurement (cash, benefits, etc.), or fraud.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Burden of proof:<\/strong> The accused person must prove that the conversion was not done unlawfully.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Filing of FIR<\/strong>: Blood relatives (parents, siblings, etc.) of the aggrieved can file an FIR in suspected cases.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Punishments:&nbsp;<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>General unlawful conversion<\/strong>: 1 to 5 years in jail, fine of Rs 15,000.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Conversion of minor, woman, or SC\/ST: 2 to 10 years in jail, fine of Rs 25,000.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mass conversions:<\/strong> 3 to 10 years in jail, fine of Rs 50,000.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Repeat offenders face double the punishment for each offence.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All offences are <strong>cognizable and non-bailable<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Voluntary Conversion Process: <\/strong>Converts must fill a declaration form and submit it to the District Magistrate (DM) 60 days in advance.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A month\u2019s advance notice must be given to the DM for the ceremony.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The person performing the conversion ceremony must also notify the DM 30 days before.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>An officer will conduct an inquiry into the intention and purpose of the conversion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A declaration of the conversion must be filed with the DM, including details like the convert\u2019s identity, religion before and after conversion, etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The convert must appear before the DM within 21 days of the declaration for verification.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Need and Purpose of the Bill<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The government claims that many gullible individuals are being converted unlawfully.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The bill aims to <strong>balance religious freedom<\/strong> with <strong>preventing fraudulent conversion<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It was aimed at preventing forcible conversions and conversions through coercion, force, allurement, or fraud.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Do you know?<\/strong><br>&#8211; The Constituent Assembly discussed the inclusion of the right to propagate religion as part of the fundamental rights.<br>&#8211; Some members were concerned that the right to propagate could lead to forceful conversions and wanted to replace the word &#8220;propagate&#8221; with &#8220;practise privately&#8221;.<br>&#8211; <strong>Article 25(1) grants <\/strong>all persons the freedom of conscience and the right to profess, practise, and propagate religion.<br>1. This guarantees equal religious freedom to everyone, but with certain limitations in the interest of public order, morality, and health.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Source :IE<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, the Rajasthan Government introduced a Bill to prevent religious conversions carried out by force, fraud or inducement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36862"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50820,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36862\/revisions\/50820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}