Uttar Pradesh government's new amendment bill on Religious Conversion law

Reference

Recently, the Uttar Pradesh government has introduced a new bill to amend the “Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act, 2021” which aims to make the law more stringent and effective.

Need for amendment

Protection of certain groups of individuals

• The present amendment bill has been introduced with the aim of protecting certain groups of persons, including minors, persons with disabilities, women and people belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities.
  • In fact, the penal provisions under the existing Act are not adequate to prevent and control individual and mass conversions relating to these groups.
• This amendment reflects the recent view expressed by the Allahabad High Court.
  • In fact while rejecting the bail plea filed by an accused under the existing Act, the High Court held that “the unlawful activity of conversion of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe people and economically weaker persons into Christianity is being carried out on a large scale throughout the State of Uttar Pradesh”.

Addressing difficulties related to interpretation of the law

• The Bill states that "Section 4 of the Act will resolve certain difficulties that have arisen in the past in relation to legal matters".
• Currently, Section 4 of the Act allows “any aggrieved person, his or her parent, brother, sister, or any other person related to him or her by blood, marriage or adoption” to lodge an FIR with the police for unlawful religious conversion; the interpretation of which had raised difficulties before the Court such as –
  • In some of its judgments in the year 2023, the Allahabad High Court has held that the phrase “any aggrieved person” does not mean that ‘anyone’ can file an FIR for illegal religious conversion.
  • In September 2023, in the case of Jose Papachenvs State of Uttar Pradesh, the Court held that “any aggrieved person” can only refer to a person who is “personally aggrieved by the fraudulent religious conversion”.
  • In February 2023, the Allahabad High Court gave the same analysis of Section 4 in the Fatehpur mass conversion case.

What changes are introduced by the Amendment Bill?

Expansion of the phrase 'any aggrieved person'

• The words ‘any aggrieved person’ in Section 4 of the present Act have been replaced with ‘any person’ in the new amendment bill.
• As per the provision thus amended, ‘any person’ can lodge an FIR in case of unlawful activities under the Indian Civil Security Code, 2023 (BNSS).
  • Section 173 of the BNSS deals with lodging an FIR. Under this, information about a crime can be given to the officer in charge of a police station; “irrespective of the area in which the crime took place”.
  • In fact, any person can approach any police station to lodge an FIR for alleged offences under the Act.

Strict bail conditions

• Section 3 of the present Act penalises conversion by “misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or any fraudulent means”, including “conversion by marriage or relationship in the nature of marriage” among the means of use of listed illegal means.
  • The Bill proposes to introduce stringent bail conditions for accused under Section 3 which are similar to bail conditions under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
• Under the new proposed Section 7, an accused cannot be released on bail unless the following two conditions are fulfilled-
  1. The public prosecutor (the lawyer representing the state government prosecuting the offence) should be given an opportunity to oppose the bail application.
  2. The court should be satisfied that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that he is not guilty of such offence and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail”.

Increase in punishments

• At present, the following punishments are provided for violation of Section 3 -
  • The original offence is punishable with imprisonment of 1-5 years and a fine of at least Rs15,000.
  • Imprisonment of 2-10 years and a minimum fine of Rs 20,000 if the victim is a minor, woman or a person belonging to SC or ST community.
  • In cases of mass conversion, the punishment is 3-10 years of imprisonment and a minimum fine of Rs50,000.
• The amendment bill proposes to increase the above jail term and penalty such as -
  • 3-10years imprisonment and minimum fine of Rs50,000 for the original offence.
  • 5-14years imprisonment and minimum fine of Rs1,00,000 if the victim is a minor, woman or from SC or ST community, physically handicapped or suffering from any mental illness.
  • 7-14 years imprisonment and minimum fine of Rs1,00,000 in cases of mass conversion.

Two new categories of crimes

• Two new categories of crimes have been added in the new bill, which include-
  1. If the accused has received money from “foreign or illegal institutions” in connection with illegal conversion, he/she can face 7-14 years imprisonment and a fine of at least Rs 10,00,000.
  2. If the accused
     • Puts any person in fear of his life or property.
     • Assaults or uses force.
     • Promises or entices any person in the name of marriage.
     • Conspires or induces any minor, woman or person to be trafficked or otherwise sold.
• Under the above circumstances, he shall be punished with a minimum of 20years imprisonment, which may extend to life imprisonment.
• The present Act provides for a maximum punishment of 10 years imprisonment for unlawful conversion by marriage.

The way forward

• Other states in India like Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have also enacted similar anti-conversion laws.
  • In fact, the anti-conversion amendment bill by the Uttar Pradesh assembly can be adopted by other states as well.
• According to the Supreme Court, anti-conversion laws are constitutional as long as they do not affect a person's right to religious freedom.