The Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) authorities in Rajasthan tabled a complete anti-conversion invoice on Monday, introducing extreme penalties together with as much as 10 years’ imprisonment for what it phrases “illegal non secular conversions.” The Rajasthan Prohibition of Illegal Conversion of Faith Invoice, 2025, marks the state’s newest try to control non secular conversions, making all offences below the laws cognisable and non-bailable.
The invoice, launched by Medical and Well being Minister Gajendra Singh Khinvsar, establishes a posh framework for non secular conversions, requiring people searching for to vary their religion to navigate an intensive bureaucratic course of. Below the brand new laws, potential converts should submit a declaration to the District Justice of the Peace 60 days earlier than their meant conversion, while non secular officiants should present a month’s advance discover of conversion ceremonies.
A controversial provision of the invoice locations the burden of proof on the accused, requiring them to show that any conversion was not achieved by “misrepresentation, power, undue affect, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage.” This represents a major departure from conventional felony jurisprudence, the place the presumption of innocence sometimes prevails.
The proposed laws has drawn specific consideration for its extreme penalties. Violations can lead to imprisonment starting from one to 5 years and a minimal positive of ₹15,000. The punishment will increase to between two and ten years’ imprisonment, with a minimal positive of ₹25,000, for conversions involving minors, girls, or members of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes. Mass conversions might appeal to even harsher penalties, with jail phrases of three to 10 years and a minimal positive of ₹50,000.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Jogaram Patel defended the laws, citing considerations about what the BJP phrases “love jihad” – a controversial phrase used to explain alleged cases of Muslim males changing Hindu girls by marriage. “Love jihad instances have assumed seriousness, inflicting quite a lot of concern for society at massive. This laws goes to curb this follow,” Patel advised journalists.
The invoice has sparked vital opposition, with the Congress celebration strongly condemning it. Opposition Chief Tika Ram Jully criticised the laws as a part of “BJP’s propaganda to mislead the folks,” suggesting the federal government ought to concentrate on extra urgent points slightly than “creating divisions in society.”
A very contentious facet of the invoice is Part 13, which grants immunity to authorities from authorized proceedings for actions taken “in good religion” below the proposed regulation. Critics argue this provision might probably allow harassment of harmless people, notably given latest cases the place courts have acquitted folks falsely charged with unlawful conversion.
Talking to Christian Right now, Rev. Vijayesh Lal, Common Secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India expressed his concern: “This invoice addresses an unproven downside whereas creating actual ones. The immunity granted to officers, mixed with reversed burden of proof, has led to wrongful arrests and harassment in different states. When private particulars of converts have to be displayed publicly and anybody can file complaints with out penalties, it creates a equipment of intimidation. This basically undermines constitutional freedoms.”
The laws mandates that conversion declarations, together with private particulars such because the convert’s title, deal with, and spiritual affiliation, be displayed on discover boards at district Justice of the Peace workplaces. This requirement has raised considerations about potential harassment by vigilante teams, because the invoice stays silent on protections for voluntary converts whose private info can be publicly displayed.
If handed, Rajasthan would be part of twelve different Indian states, together with Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, in implementing anti-conversion laws. The invoice represents the state’s third try at such laws, following unsuccessful efforts in 2006 and 2008 below former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s administration, additionally of the BJP.
The invoice is anticipated to cross through the present finances session, given the BJP’s majority within the state meeting, regardless of considerations raised about its potential influence on non secular freedom and minority rights.
