Dehradun: Uttarakhand Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Gurmit Singh on Friday approved the Anti-Conversion Amendment Bill passed by the state Legislative Assembly in November this year, said Mahesh Chand Koshiwa, the additional secretary of the state Law department.
The approval of the Bill by the Governor has cleared the way for strict action against forced conversions in the state.
The Bill, titled, Religion Freedom (Amendment) Bill 2022, was passed by the Assembly during the Winter session.
The state government intends to implement the law at the earliest.
"The government had decided to enact a strict law against religious conversion in the state," Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami had said after the Bill was passed through a voice vote.
Anti Conversion [Ammendment] bill makes conversion Cognizable offence
According to the reports, the bill establishes religious conversion as criminal offence which is punishable with minimum three-year sentence and a maximum 10-year sentence. It is cognizable and non-bailable offence.
The bill's provision also includes a fine amount, the minimum is Rs 50,000 and the modification stated that an offender may also be required to pay minimum of Rs 5 lakhs in compensation to the 'victim'.
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