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An Ordinance will now be passed to incorporate the changes suggested and will be sent for the Governor’s assent again, said officials in the government.
Written by Aiswarya Raj Dehradun | Updated: December 18, 2025 06:53 AM IST
2 min read
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. (ANI Photo)
Four months after it was passed in the Uttarakhand Assembly, Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (Retd) has returned the Bill to amend the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion and Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion Act, 2018 to the state government for changes.
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According to officials in the Endowment Department, the Bill, which aims to further strengthen the law against forced conversions in the state, was returned Tuesday owing to clerical errors, repetitions and a lack of clarity regarding prison terms.
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An Ordinance will now be passed to incorporate the changes suggested and will be sent for the Governor’s assent again, said officials in the government.
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The Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2025 was passed in the Assembly’s monsoon session on August 20. Many of its provisions have been lifted from the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2024. For example, the maximum punishment has been raised to 20 years or life term for some offences.
The original 2018 Act stipulated a prison term of up to five years for anyone convicted of “forced or fraudulent” religious conversion through coercion, incitement, or allurement.
The Dhami government had earlier amended the Act in 2022, which then stipulated a prison term of not less than two years extending to seven years with a fine not less than Rs 25,000. If the “forcibly” converted person was a minor, a woman, or a person belonging to the Scheduled Caste or the Scheduled Tribe, it attracted imprisonment for a term between two to 10 years, besides a minimum Rs 25,000 fine.
Under the 2025 amendment, fraudulent conversion will attract between three to 10 years in jail and a minimum fine of Rs 50,000. If the victim is a minor, a woman, an SC/ST individual, or a person with disability, the punishment will be five to 14 years in jail and a fine of at least Rs 1 lakh. The proposed amendment also gives powers to seize the property of the accused.
Aiswarya Raj is a Senior Correspondent for The Indian Express, one of India's most respected media houses, specialising in in-depth coverage of Uttarakhand and the Himalayan region. Her work focuses on delivering essential, ground-up reporting across complex regional issues. Aiswarya brings significant journalistic experience to her role, having started her career at The Indian Express as a Sub-Editor with the Delhi city team. She subsequently developed her reporting expertise by covering Gurugram and its neighboring districts before transitioning to her current focus. She is an accomplished alumna of the prestigious Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) and the University of Kerala. Her reporting is characterized by a commitment to narrative journalism, prioritising the human element and verified facts behind critical events. Aiswarya’s beats demonstrate deep expertise in state politics, law enforcement investigations (e.g., paper leak cases, international cyber scams), human-wildlife conflict, environmental disasters, and socio-economic matters affecting local communities. This specific, sustained focus on critical regional news provides the necessary foundation for high trustworthiness and authoritativeness on topics concerning Uttarakhand. ... Read More
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