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Chhattisgarh passes stricter anti-conversion bill with provisions of life term, Rs 25 lakh fine
The Chhattisgarh Assembly on Thursday passed a bill introducing stricter penalties, including life imprisonment and fines up to Rs 25 lakh, for forced and fraudulent religious conversions.
The 2026 Freedom of Religion Bill will replace a 1968 law enacted in undivided Madhya Pradesh, from which Chhattisgarh was carved out in 2000.
The Opposition boycotted the proceedings, calling for further scrutiny of the draft legislation.
After the Assembly cleared the bill, Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai told reporters that the law would stop religious conversions “carried out by taking advantage of people’s poverty, and lack of education and knowledge”, The Hindu reported.
The 1968 law had become inadequate in effectively controlling “the use of force, greed and fraudulent practices” for conversions, Deo Sai was quoted as saying.
The new legislation bars persons from converting anyone “by the use or practice of glorification, misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement”.
Under the law, a person who wants to convert will have to submit a declaration to the district magistrate or an authorised official, The Indian Express reported.
Within a week, the authorities will publish the details of the proposed conversion on a website and in the offices of the tehsildar, gram panchayat and the local police station.
The law empowers the authorities to verify the authenticity of conversions, investigate complaints and summon records. Objections against the proposed conversions can be filed within a month, after which the authorities will conduct an inquiry, The Indian Express reported.
The legislation broadens the definition of “allurement” to include monetary benefits, gifts, employment, free education or medical facilities, promises of better lifestyle and marriage.
Conversions solely for the purpose of marriage or marriage done for conversions will be treated as invalid under the new law unless a due legal process has been followed, The Hindu reported.
It says that “coercion” includes psychological pressure, physical force or threats, including social boycott, the newspaper reported.
The law provides for the authorities to maintain a record of proposed religious conversions on its website and the setting up of special courts to hear matters pertaining to the Act.
For mass conversions, a person may be jailed for a minimum of 10 years, and possibly life imprisonment, and be fined Rs 25 lakh or more.
In cases involving minors, women, persons with mental illness, or members of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, the minimum fine will be Rs 10 lakh.
However, converting to “ancestral religion” will not be treated as a conversion under the Act, The Indian Express reported.
With this, Chhattisgarh joined several states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party to enact similar legislations in recent years.
The Maharashtra legislature passed a similar anti-conversion bill amid concerns expressed by the Opposition that provisions of the legislation could be misused by the authorities and socio-political groups.
Source: Scroll
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