Life term to tough bail: Yogi Adityanath govt’s stringent anti-conversion bill in UP explained in 10 points

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has come up with an amended anti-conversion bill that seeks to increase the jail terms and impose fines.

The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion (Amendment) Bill, 2024, was tabled in the state Assembly on July 29 and includes foreign funding in its purview.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in UP believes that the provisions in the existing anti-conversion law – The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 – are not ‘sufficient’ and thus the need to make the law more stringent

The bill is likely to be passed in the assembly later this week.

Here are some of the significant provisions in the proposed amendments:

1- Under the existing law, police can act only on a complaint by a victim's family member. Under the amended bill, however, anybody can lodge a written complaint for the police to start an investigation.

2- The amended bill provides that a person guilty of forcible or deceitful conversions can be sentenced to 3 to 10 years in jail. The existing law has jail term between one and five years for the same offence.

3- The punishment proposed in the new bill for illegal mass religious conversion is 7 to 14 years of jail, besides a fine of ₹1 lakh. Under the existing law, the punishment for the same offence is 3 to 10 years and a fine of ₹50,000.

4 - A person found guilty of foreign funding meant for illegal religious conversion, can be punished with a jail term of 7 to 14 years and a fine of ₹10 lakh.

5 - Anyone found guilty of abducting a woman for illegal conversion will be sentenced to 20 years in jail, extendable to a life term, as per the proposed amendment.

6- “The court shall also approve appropriate compensation payable by the accused to the victim of the said religious conversion, which may be up to ₹5 lakh, which shall be in addition to the fine,” says the Bill, as reported by Indian Express

7- In cases of involvement of a minor, disabled or mentally challenged person, woman or person belonging to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe, the person found guilty will face rigorous imprisonment for up to 14 years besides a fine amount of not less than ₹1 lakh. The existing law has a punishment of up to 10 years and a minimum fine of ₹25,000 for the same offence.

8 - The amended bill makes the bail provision provided in Section 7 of the existing law more stringent. The existing law states that all offences are cognizable and non-bailable and shall be triable by the Court of Session.

9 - However, the amended bill has added an additional sub-clause to make bail provision more stringent. An accused person in custody cannot be released on bail unless the public prosecutor is given an opportunity to oppose the application for bail.

10 -  "…Or where the public prosecutor opposes the application for bail, the session court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilty of such offence and that no offence can be committed by him while on bail,” reads the new proposed addition in the law, according to the report in the Indian Express.