With the Haryana Prevention of Unlawful Conversion Bill, 2022 creating in uproar in the state Assembly, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday said this Bill does not stop anyone who is willingly doing a conversion.

The Haryana Prevention of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill, 2022, was reintroduced on the third day during the ongoing Budget Session in the Haryana Assembly today by home minister Anil Vij. This Bill prohibits religious conversions which are effected through misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage by making it an offence.

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It provides for declaring marriages, which were done solely for the purpose of conversion from one religion to another religion, null and void.

Even as the main Opposition, Congress, termed the legislation as a reflection of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government’s “divisive policies”, Khattar said many such cases have come to the notice of people in the state wherein the people of the state are being converted through various allurements. He said some of them were even forcibly converted.

Besides this, there have also been cases where girls of other religions were married by misinterpreting their religion and such girls were forced to convert after marriage, the CM said.

Khattar said such incidents not only violate our religious freedom but also hurt the socio-religious fabric of society. To stop such incidents, The Haryana Prevention of Unlawful
Conversion of Religion Bill, 2022 has been introduced, he added.

As per the provisions of the Bill, any religious priest or any person intending to organise a willful conversion should give prior notice to the district magistrate in advance giving information about the venue where such conversion is proposed to be organised. A copy of this notice will be pasted on the notice board outside the district magistrate’s office.

If the district magistrate comes to the conclusion that the intended conversion is in contravention of Section 3, then he will decline the intended conversion by passing a reasoned order.

If the conversion is done by allurement, use of force, or fraudulent means, coercion, then there is a provision of imprisonment of one year to five years and a fine of not less than Rs One lakh. If religion is concealed with the intention to marry, then the person will be punished with imprisonment of three years to ten years and will also be liable to pay a fine which shall not be less than Rs Three lakh.

Whoever contravenes the provision of Section 3 of this Bill in respect of mass conversion will be punished with the imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years, which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to pay a fine not less than Rs Four lakh.