Anti-conversion Bill gets a stricter coat of paint in Rajasthan, life imprisonment, Rs 50 lakh fine for repeat offenders

In February, the government had tabled the Bill, but it had not come up for debate. Now, Patel said, the old Bill will be withdrawn and a fresh Bill with more stringent penalties will be tabled in the upcoming session. Currently, Rajasthan doesn’t have a law against illegal conversion. The draft of the new Bill was approved in the Cabinet meeting on Sunday.

Notably, returning to one’s “original ancestral religion” has not been included in the definition of religious conversion. “If someone returns to their mool (original) religion, which we call ghar wapsi, then these provisions will not be applicable to them,” Patel said.

If the new Bill is passed, those involved in unlawful conversion can be punished with a jail term of seven to 14 years, along with a minimum fine of Rs 5 lakh. In the old Bill, the punishment was one to five years of jail time and a minimum fine of Rs 15,000.

In case of unlawful conversion of a minor, a differently abled person, a woman or a person belonging to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST), the punishment will be 10-20 years with a minimum fine of Rs 10 lakh. Earlier, this was 2-10 years with a minimum fine of Rs 25,000, with no specific provision for the differently abled.

In case of an unlawful mass conversion, the imprisonment would be from 20 years to life imprisonment and a minimum fine of Rs 25 lakh. Earlier, this was 3-10 years with a minimum fine of Rs 50,000.

While the previous Bill had no mention of foreign funding, the new Bill states that receiving money from a foreign or illegal institution for religious conversion would carry an imprisonment between 10-20 years and a minimum Rs 20 lakh fine.

In certain special cases, such as inducing fear, using force, promise of marriage, marriage, and trafficking women, the Bill proposes a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life imprisonment, and a minimum fine of Rs 30 lakh. While the previous Bill did not specifically mention punishment for conversion in the context of marriage, it had said that a marriage done for the sole purpose of unlawful conversion, or vice versa, will be declared void. This will be retained by the new Bill, Patel said.

The Law minister said that the new Bill proposes a punishment of life imprisonment and a minimum fine of Rs 50 lakh on repetition of the crime, as well as cancellation of registration of the organisation involved in illegal conversion, the termination of its grants by the state government and, after investigation, confiscation or demolition of the property where the illegal religious conversion took place. The old Bill had said that repeat offenders would face, for each subsequent offence, a punishment not exceeding double the punishment provided under the law.

Like the old Bill, the new one also puts the burden of proof on the person accused of carrying out the religious conversion, and all offences will be cognizable and non-bailable.

In an interview with The Indian Express last year, Patel had said the Bill was being brought to prevent forcible conversions, especially those of vulnerable communities like tribals, and also to keep a check on “love jihad”, among other things. In the ‘Statement of Objects and Reasons’ for the previous Bill, the BJP government had cited conversion of “gullible persons” as a key reason behind the Bill.

Reacting to the new Bill, Leader of Opposition Tika Ram Jully said that Rajasthan has always been a land of communal harmony and termed the Bill “an attempt to divert attention from inflation, unemployment, corruption, broken roads, and collapsing schools”.

He alleged that the government wanted to vitiate the atmosphere of brotherhood and gain political mileage. He pointed out that in response to an Assembly question by a BJP MLA, the government had replied that no case has been registered in the state in relation to “love jihad”.

Other decisions approved in Sunday’s Cabinet meeting included providing 150 units of free electricity to beneficiaries of the Chief Minister’s Free Electricity Scheme by connecting them to solar energy, amendment in the Sewerage and Waste Water Policy, 2016, and the installation of up to 2 lakh street lights in urban areas, among others.