Himachal Pradesh govt passes new law to curb forced conversion

A notification of state government said that HP Freedom of Religion Bill 2019 which was pending  before the Governor, gave assent its consent and Law Department issued notification to implement it.

The ruling BJP and the Congress parties unanimously passed the Bill however,  CPI(M) lone member Rakesh Singha expressed apprehensions over certain provisions in the Bill.

This law would also replace similar anti-conversion legislation brought by Virbhadra Singh Government in 2006 which virtually had become redundant as some of its provisions were strike down by the High court.

The new law states that no person should convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any other person from one religion to another by use of misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, inducement or by fraudulent means.

Any person booked for violation of its provision could be jailed for seven years compared to previous act had provision of two to three years.

The law mentions that any marriage which was done either by converting oneself before or after marriage or by converting the other person before or after marriage may be declared null and void by the family court.

The law was enacted by the Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur Government with a motive to curb rising forced conversions by fraudulent means.

The purpose of this law was to check forced conversation well in time as such practice eroding confidence and mutual trust between the different ethnic and religious groups, the Chief Minister said.

A similar law was also passed by the Uttarakhand government recently.