Context:

• The Gujarat High Court this week stayed key provisionsof The Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021 pertaining to marriages involving religious conversion of either of the two parties. 

Law under Challenge:

• The laws ostensibly seek to end conversion through unlawful means, specifically prohibit any conversion for marriage, even if it is with the consent of the individual except when prior sanction is obtained from the state. Apart from UP and Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh too, have also enacted similar laws.
• It which allows the aggrieved person, their parents, brother, sister, or any other person related by blood or marriage or adoption to file an FIR challenging the conversion and subsequent marriage.
• It reverses the burden of proof on the partner of the converted spouse to prove that he/she did not coerce the other spouse

Criticism of Law:

• The new anti-conversion laws shift the burden of proof of a lawful religious conversion from the converted to his/her partner;
• define “allurement” for religious conversion in vague, over-broad terms;
• Prescribe different jail terms based on gender; and legitimate the intrusion of family and the society at large to oppose inter-faith marriages.
• They also give powers to the state to conduct a police inquiry to verify the intentions of the parties to convert for the purposes of
• The laws interfere in an individual’s agency to marry a partner from a different faith and to choose to convert from one’s religion for that purpose.
• Apart from being vague and sweeping, the laws also test the limits to which the state can interfere in the personal affairs of individuals.
• The freedom to propagate one’s religion and the right to choose a partner are fundamental rights that the new anti-conversion laws impinge upon.

Observation of the High Court:

• It interferes with the intricacies of marriage including the right to the choice of an individual, thereby infringing Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
• From the perception of a common man, it appears that merely because a conversion occurs because of marriage, it per se cannot be held to be an unlawful conversion or a marriage done for the purpose of unlawful conversion.

Government Stand:

• The state government had argued that the law did not prohibit all inter-faith marriages, but only the ones based on fraud and coercion
• It had argued that the Act must be read as a whole to interpret the provision, and the provision alone could not be read by itself.

Universal Acceptance of Freedom of Religion:

• Every individual has a natural entitlement of religious faith and freedom of conscience, a right to adopt or abandoned any faith of his own choice.
• The freedom of religion and freedom of conscience has also been recognized under the international law.
• freedom of religion and freedom of conscience is fundamental right both constitutionally and conventionally.

Constitution on freedom of religion:

Indian society has nourished and nurtured almost all the established religion of the world like Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism etc. from its time immemorial.

• Article 25 (1) states, “Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this Part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion

Religious conversion means adopting a new religion, a religion that is different from his previous religion or religion by his birth.

Reasons behind religious conversion:

• Conversion by force
• Conversion by offering better life. It means offering economic incentive for one to come out of the religion.
• Conversion for marriage.
• Conversion to escape the rigid hierarchical system caste system.
• Conversion by free will or free choice as the tenets of other religion appear more closer to person.
• Conversion to get reservation benefits

Anti -Conversion laws in India:

There is no pan India anti-conversion law some states have adopted their state specific anti-conversion laws.

• Under these state laws, one is given a fixed time period before converting to another religion. It ensures that one doesn’t convert due to force.

Supreme Court verdict on conversion:

• The freedom of religion enshrined in Article 25 is not guaranteed in respect of one religion only but covers all religions alike which can be properly enjoyed by a person if he exercises his right in a manner commensurate with the like freedom of persons following other religion.
• What is freedom for one is freedom for the other in equal measure and there can, therefore, be no such thing as a fundamental right to convert any person to one’s own religion.