Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has introduced 'Maharashtra Religious Self-rule Snout 2026' in the Turnout to stop forced or fraudulent religious conversion. The government says that this law has been brought to prevent religious conversion through force, greed, charade or on the pretext of marriage. Under the proposed law, a provision of jail and a heavy fine have been made for those involved in such cases.
What is the main objective of the bill?
According to the government, the purpose of this law is to ban such religious conversions which are washed-up through pressure, greed, charade or any kind of inducement. The government says that this will protect the religious self-rule of the people and no one will be forced to transpiration their religion. In the proposed bill, there is a provision to consider such religious conversion as illegal and make it a punishable offence.
What will be the religion of the child born without illegal conversion?
An important provision of the snout is that if religious conversion in a marriage or relationship is considered illegal and a child is born from it, the religion of that child will be decided on the understructure of the mother's original religion surpassing marriage. There is a lot of discussion regarding this provision at the political and social level.
What needs to be washed-up surpassing waffly religion?
According to the proposed law, if a person wants to transpiration religion voluntarily, he will have to inform the district wardship at least 60 days in advance. Without this, without the completion of the process of religious conversion, the concerned person will moreover have to requite a declaration form. If this process is not completed then the religious conversion may be considered illegal.
What is the provision for punishment?
According to the proposed bill, if a person's religion is reverted through pressure, fraud or any kind of greed, then if found guilty, strict whoopee can be taken versus him. In such cases, a maximum punishment of up to 7 years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh or increasingly can be imposed. However, if this treason has been single-minded repeatedly or religious conversion has been carried out in an organized manner, then the punishment can be plane increasingly severe.
What will happen in marriage matters?
The proposed law moreover states that if the investigation proves that the purpose of the marriage was only to rationalization religious conversion, then the magistrate can declare such a marriage void. Apart from this, the family or relatives of the concerned person can moreover lodge a complaint, without which the police can investigate.
Why is there debate?
The government is calling this a necessary step to prevent forced or fraudulent religious conversion. At the same time, opposition parties and some social organizations believe that such a law can stupefy personal self-rule and inter-religious marriages. At present this snout has been introduced in the assembly, and only without remoter legislative process it will be decided whether it will be implemented as law or not.
