Curbing conversions or targeting minorities?

The Uttar Pradesh government passed the Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Bill 2024 in July, making the previous 2021 Act more stringent—almost on the lines of the Unlawful
Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Under this law, it becomes nearly impossible for anyone arrested to be released quickly. 

Despite over 400 cases being registered in UP under the earlier Act, with hundreds incarcerated, the government believed that the law was not stringent enough to prevent unlawful conversions. The objective of the law was to prohibit conversions of gullible persons from “one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement, or by fraudulent means”. 

While Article 25(1) of the Indian constitution guarantees the right to profess, practice, or propagate religion, this right is being curtailed. In the first half of this year, 92 incidents of violence against Christians were reported in Uttar Pradesh alone. By August, 489 such incidents were reported nationwide. Last year, 734 attacks on Christians caused significant insecurity within the community. 

For instance, in a fake conversion complaint filed by a resident of Sakatpur village in Bareilly on May 29, 2022, Himanshu Patel, district president of Hindu Jagran Manch, reported to the police that Abhishek Gupta along with eight others was converting people to Christianity. Following his arrest under the Uttar Pradesh Anti-conversion Act 2021, he was dismissed from his job at Rohilkhand Medical College.

Another person, Kundan Lal, too, was arrested purportedly based on statements of Abhishek Gupta. In a hearing in July this year, the Additional Sessions Judge Gyanendra Tripathi acquitted both accused, stating that the case was false and fabricated.

The court noted that “the police acted under pressure from the complainant who filed a complaint for the sake of publicity and directed the district superintendent of police to take action against the complainant, witnesses, the circle officer in charge of Bithari Chainpur police station, and the investigators for filing a false FIR.

On June 20, a pastor and his wife were arrested in Azamgarh under the anti-conversion law. They were released on bail almost a month later, on the intervention of lawyers. On July 31, two men were arrested in Ambedkar Nagar for reportedly offering Rs 10,000 to a group to convert.

Under Section 4 of the erstwhile 2021 law, only an “aggrieved person, his/her parents, brother, sister, or any other person who is related to him/her by blood, marriage, or adoption may lodge a First Information Report of such conversion”. However, Christians were arrested based on complaints filed by fundamentalist elements who were not related to the supposedly “aggrieved persons,” suspected to be propped up by fundamentalists. 

Following challenges in court by defence lawyers, who argued that the FIRs were wrongly filed by persons who were in no way related to the
persons supposedly converted, the Act was amended to allow any person to lodge a complaint.

The penalties have also increased. Earlier, imprisonment for conversion ranged from one to five years with a fine of Rs 15,000. This has now been increased to three to 10 years, with a minimum fine of Rs 50,000. If the victim of conversion is a minor, woman, mentally/physically disabled, or from the SC/ST community, the punishment could be two to 10 years of imprisonment with at least Rs 20,000 as a fine. The same has been enhanced to five to 14 years of imprisonment with a minimum fine of Rs 1 lakh. For conversion of two or more persons, termed “mass conversion,” the imprisonment could range from seven to 14 years with a minimum fine of Rs 1 lakh.

Laws for conversion through marriage have been made harsher. A person found guilty now faces 20 years to life imprisonment, compared to the previous 10 years sentence.

Unfortunately, when one state passes such stringent laws, others follow. While Odisha was the first to introduce anti-conversion laws in 1967, Madhya Pradesh followed in 1968, Arunachal Pradesh (1978), Gujarat (2003), Chhattisgarh (2006), Jharkhand (2017), Uttarakhand (2018), and Himachal Pradesh in 2019. Though the state laws differ, none of them have been as stringent as UP’s amended law, which may inspire similar measures elsewhere. 

The issue of conversion is largely directed towards Christians, though it remains a matter of individual faith. The Muslim community also suffers persecution, particularly through accusations related to ‘love jihad,’ matrimonial bonds with men/women of other religions.

A false narrative is propagated by mischievous elements that people from weaker sections are lured with money and free education to convert, but most pastors themselves live in poverty. 

The amended law will likely lead to more false cases against the minorities in police stations and various courts, with many languishing in prisons for years without trials. The accused have to defend themselves to disprove the charges levelled against them, often facing false witnesses and fabricated charges. The accused stand remote chances of acquittal.

As with the UAPA, the offence of conversion has been made non-bailable, with no hearing for bail until a prosecutor is present in the court to oppose the bail. A mere absence of a prosecutor will ensure that the accused is not let off on bail and remains imprisoned. 

Since the anti-conversion laws of various states have been challenged in high courts by individuals and non-governmental organisations, the Supreme Court of India transferred all pending cases to itself for the purpose of clubbing the cases for adjudication.

On January 16, 2023, the Chief Justice of India allowed all lawyers to transfer the cases. In the six hearings since then, no substantial progress has been made. Now that the new amended law is likely to be enforced in the near future, it is time that the Apex Court take up the matter on top priority. 

(The writer is Inspector General of Police (Retd), CRPF)