Alert DM 60 days in advance, let police assess ‘real intention’: Chhattisgarh prepares Bill to regulate conversion

The person who performs the conversion ceremony will similarly have to fill a form at least a month in advance.

The draft also states that conversion “cannot be done from one religion to another by the use or practice of abuse, force, undue influence, coercion, inducement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage.”

If the DM discovers this was the case, the conversion will be deemed illegal, it states.

The draft for the “Chhattisgarh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Bill” also states that following the conversion, a person will have to fill another declaration form within 60 days and present himself or herself before the DM for verification. If this is not done, the conversion can be deemed illegal, it states, adding that the DM will display a copy of the declaration on the notice board of his office until the date of confirmation.

A registry will be maintained by the DM of everyone who converts.

In case of an objection, an FIR can be filed by a person who is related by blood or adoption to the person getting converted. The case will be non-bailable and triable by a sessions court, it states.

Those found illegally converting minors, women, or members of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe will face a minimum of two years and maximum of 10 years in jail, as well as a minimum fine of Rs 25,000. For mass conversion, the punishment will be a minimum of three years and a maximum 10 years with a Rs 50,000 fine. The court may also approve compensation of up to Rs 5 lakh to the victim of religious conversion.

It states that the burden of proof that a conversion was not illegal will be on the person who conducted the rituals.

The law does not apply to those who want to re-convert to their previous religion.

Over the last few years, when the Congress was in power, the state saw several instances of tribals who had converted to Christianity being attacked in districts such as Kondagaon and Narayanpur. In the run up to the assembly polls, the BJP had made conversions an electoral issue.

It was the late Union Minister Dilip Singh Judeo, from the erstwhile Royal family of Jashpur, who first gave a push to the “Ghar Wapsi” campaign in his district.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, who also hails from Jashpur and sees Judeo as his mentor, has said religious conversion increased in the last five years. He said last month, “Judeo ji started the Ghar Wapsi campaign in Jashpur due to which our district is protected. Otherwise the second biggest church in Asia is in our district and conversion takes place rapidly. Though he was a king, he washed the feet of converted people and brought them back to Hinduism, and today his son is carrying forward this work.”