What is even more alarming is that the long arm of the law has extended into the legislative and executive domains
Critics and civil liberties groups argue such laws can be misused to target certain religious communities, violate fundamental rights, and hinder interfaith marriages
That the BJP strategy of pushing the envelope beyond the contours of everyday politics has paid the party rich dividends is beyond any reasonable doubt. Different experiments in different geographies have helped the party to expand its frontiers and break new ground. If, in the process, a few well-laid-down shibboleths have been grounded to dust, it should be considered par for the course.
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Take the proposed amendments to the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2025. Taking a leaf out of 'Big Brother' Uttar Pradesh, Pushkar Singh Dhami’s state cabinet has demonstrated that it is no less. The cabinet’s approval of the proposal can only be described as arbitrary and draconian in the extreme.
Adding teeth to existing law
To render the state’s existing anti-conversion law more stringent, the bill allows jail sentences ranging from three years to a life term for persons found guilty of “forced conversions”. Previously, the maximum jail term for a “forced conversion” was 10 years. Even shakier is the proposal to expand its scope by seizing the property of those accused, all quite arbitrarily.
The law becomes seriously problematic because of the loosely worded conditions defining the offence. For instance, inducement/allurement has been expanded to include “glorifying one religion against another”. The bill defines “allurement” as “any gift, gratification, easy money or material benefit, whether in cash or kind, employment, or by invoking divine displeasure”.
It bans “social media applications aimed at building online communities of people who share interests and activities or are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others…” for the purpose of the law. Pray, what does it imply? Despite its vagueness, what is clear is that it gives the executive a large role and a virtual veto in interpreting the law just as it deems fit. In a democracy, this should be considered an anomaly.
Stricter punishment now
What are the other inducements, according to the amendments? “Attempts to convert a person into another religion with the lure of jobs, money, or other gifts would be considered a forced conversion,” an official involved in the framing of the bill told journalists.
In addition, he said, “Promises of a better life, or free education in a school or college maintained by a religious institution before religious conversion will attract a punishment of three to 10 years. Mass conversions and conversion activity with foreign funding will attract a punishment of seven to 14 years. Persons found guilty of the forcible conversion of a woman, child, an individual belonging to a SC (Scheduled Caste)/ ST(Scheduled Tribe) community, or a person with disability can get a jail term of five to 14 years.”
Also read | Hindus in India to become minority if conversions go on: Allahabad HC
In other words, new amendments increase the jail term to life imprisonment of 14 years. Like UP’s law, if convicted of illegal conversion of minors or SC/ST, jail term may be 20 years or remainder of life.
That the Uttarakhand BJP government should continuously put the screws on conversion, fine-tuning it to a point of no return, is a matter of some concern. The Freedom of Religion Act in Uttarakhand was introduced in 2018 to reinforce the importance of each religion equally under the right to freedom of religion in Articles 25, 26, 27 and 28 of the Constitution of India. The Act was first amended in 2022.
CM Dhami justifies move
The 2022 amendment had already imported terms of the most stringent of laws – anti-terror legislation, UAPA. So, “illegal conversion” is a cognisable non-bailable offence, police already need no warrant to arrest, suspicion will suffice, and the burden of proof is on the accused. It can’t get more capricious.
Mass conversion is defined as “when the religion of two or more persons is converted”.
Chief Minister Dhami justifies the amendments because, in his words, an alleged “demographic change” is systematically being sought to be introduced in the state through “illegal/forced conversions”.
Someone needs to ask how and where Uttarakhand, a state with 83% Hindus, about 14% Muslims, and a smattering of Christians and others, is feeling the heat of a demographic change and facing the impending threat of minority appeasement?
“Yet another amendment legislation to make the law even more strict has been occasioned by recent cases of conversions in the state aimed at demographic change,” said BJP leader and former chairman of the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple committee, Ajendra Ajay.
No data to support claims
Ajendra, who had actively raised the issue of “land jihad” in the state, said a new, stricter law against conversion is the need of the hour. It will help counter a “nationwide campaign” being run regarding conversion, he said. To be sure, neither Ajendra nor the state government has any data on the “recent cases of conversions”, nor any information on “demographic change”.
What is even more alarming is that the long arm of the law has extended into the legislative and executive domains. The legislation is to be amended to allow the local government to confiscate property belonging to the accused – no evidence is needed, mind you, but only mere suspicion of “foreign funds” being involved.
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The amended bill authorises District Magistrates to confiscate properties “acquired from a crime related to religious conversion”. Claims to legitimate ownership would have to be proved. DMs can order seizure of any property they have “reason to believe” is related to the alleged conversion. And this can be done “…regardless, whether a court has taken cognisance of such offence.”
Religious freedom under threat?
These new amendments will come into place even in an ecosystem when the burden of proof is already on the accused, who can be arrested without a warrant. According to the 2025 Bill, bail will be granted only if the court is convinced that the accused was not guilty and would not commit such a crime again.
Activists are apprehensive about the proposed measures being exploited by officials for witch-hunts. Father Jinto Arimbookaram, a Bijnor diocese official, said the Christian community should guard against “the misuse of the proposed law by anti-social elements targeting churches.”
“We have to be very careful, as our regular Sunday Mass and services or any other church functions can be branded as religious conversion activities,” the priest told UCA News (Union of Catholic Asian News) this week.
The convenor of the United Christian Forum, AC Michael, said that “these amendments are in complete violation of the Constitution of India, which states that all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion.”
The Catholic lay leader noted that during a May 16, 2025, hearing on an anti-conversion law in Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court observed that “some parts of it seemed to be in violation of the fundamental right to religion guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution”.
UP law sparks heated debate
The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, is an anti-conversion law enacted to prohibit religious conversion through force, misrepresentation, undue influence, coercion, allurement, or fraudulent means, including marriage for conversion.
The law was amended in 2024 to increase penalties and expand the scope for registering complaints, with proposed punishments including 20 years to life imprisonment for offences like forced conversion, marriage, or trafficking.
The legislation was introduced by the Yogi Adityanath government to curb the alleged practice of “love jihad”, a term used by some Hindu outfits for forced religious conversion through marriage.
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Critics and civil liberties groups have argued that such anti-conversion laws can be misused to disproportionately affect certain religious communities, violate fundamental rights like freedom of conscience and privacy, and create hurdles for interfaith marriages.
Clearly, laws where anyone can be arrested on mere suspicion of “intent”, where the accused’s property can be seized and which places the onus of proving the charges wrong on the accused at the mercy of poorly designed legislations, certainly demand a review or even a reversal.
(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal)
