Jaipur: The Rajasthan government is coming up with a more stringent version of a bill to curb religious conversions via coercion, fraud, or misrepresentation during the assembly session that commenced with uproars on the issue of alleged vote chori on Monday.
The amended bill was cleared by the state cabinet on Sunday. The Law and Legal Affairs Minister of the state, Jogaram Patel, said that the existing draft, which was introduced in the assembly in February this year, will be replaced with a stricter version, featuring severe penalties including seven to fourteen years of imprisonment and minimum fines up to Rs 5 lakh.
“The Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill-2025 will be introduced in the Assembly to prevent attempts of conversion by inducement or fraud,” said Patel.
He said that there is no specific law in the state to prevent illegal conversion; therefore, Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill-2025 was introduced in the Assembly in the last session. Now, by withdrawing this bill and making more stringent provisions in it, a new draft of the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill-2025 will be introduced in the current session of the Assembly.
The said Bill proposes religious conversion by coercion, fraud, or misrepresentation as a non-bailable and cognizable offense. A marriage with the objective of illegal religious conversion would be void, although Ghar Wapsi, a return to the original ancestral religion, has not been included in the definition of religious conversion.
The bill provides for
- 7 to 14 years imprisonment and Rs 5 lakh fine for illegal conversion,
- 10 to 20 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 lakh for religious conversion of a minor, handicapped person, woman, SC, or ST.
- 20 years to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 25 lakh for mass religious conversion.
- 10 to 20 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 20 lakh for receiving money from a foreign or illegal institution for religious conversion.
- 20 years to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 30 lakh for crimes like fear, force, promise of marriage, marriage, minors, and women trafficking.
- life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50 lakh on repetition of the offense.
The session starts with uproars
The fourth session of the Rajasthan Vidhansabha commenced with uproars on the issue of alleged vote chori. The members of the opposition Congress raised slogans like "Vote Chor Gaddi Chod" against BJP, while countering them, the ruling BJP MLAs used slogans like "Gaalibaz Rahul."Congress leader Sachin Pilot said that some people are trying to form the government by stealing votes, and the entire country has come out in protest against this, as the Congress party will not tolerate vote theft at all.
