Chandigarh, February 8:  Haryana Cabinet which met under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal here today approved the draft of The Haryana Prevention of Unlawful Conversion of Religious Bill, 2022. The said Bill now be tabled before Vidhan Sabha.

The said Bill is proposed to seek to prohibit religious conversions which are effected through misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage or for marriage by making it an offence, hence the draft Bill is approved.

Right to freedom of religion is guaranteed under Articles 255, 26, 27 and 28 of the Constitution of India, which provide religious freedom to all citizens of India. The objective of this right is to sustain the principle of secularism in India. According to the Constitution, State has no religion and all religions are equal before the State and no religion shall be given preference over the other. Citizens are free to preach, practice and propagate any religion of their choice.

The Constitution confers on each individual the fundamental right to profess, practice and propagate his religion. However, the individual right to freedom of conscience and religion cannot be extended to construe a collective right to proselytize; for the right to religious freedom belongs equally to the person converting and the individual sought to be converted. Still, there have been umpteen cases of religious conversions, both mass and individual. Obviously, such incidents have been hotly debated, more so in a multi-religious society, such as ours. The presence of pseudo-social organizations with a hidden agenda to convert the vulnerable sections of other religions. There have been in stances when gullible people have been converted by offering allurement or under undue influence. Some have been forced to convert to other religions.

In recent past several instances came to the notice that with an agenda to increase strength of their own religion by getting people from other religions converted, people marry persons of other religion by either misrepresentation or conceafment of their own religion and after getting married they force such other person to convert to their own religion. Recently Supreme Court also took judicial notice of such instances. Such incidents not only infringe the freedom of religion of the persons so converted but also militate against the secular fabric of our society that conversion just for the purpose of marriage is unacceptable such incidents not only infringe the freedom of religion of the persons so converted but also militate against the secular fabric of our society.

The bill, therefore, seeks to prevent religious conversions which are affected through use of force, under threat, misrepresentation, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage or for marriage by making it an offence. Provide greater punishment for such conversion in respect of the Minor, Women, Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

Provide that the burden of proof as to whether a conversion was not affected through misrepresentation, use of force, under threat, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage or for marriage for the purpose of carrying out conversion lies on the accused.

Provide that every individual converting from one religion to another shall submit to the prescribed authority a declaration that the conversion affected through was not misrepresentation, use of force, under threat, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage or for marriage and such authority shall make an inquiry in such cases. Provide for declaring marriages null and void, which were solemnized by concealment of religion. The Bill seeks to achieve the above objectives.