Why rights group United Christian Forum is opposing UP anti-conversion bill

The United Christian Forum, a human rights group with countrywide presence, has opposed the ‘draconian’ amendments to the anti-conversion law in Uttar Pradesh, saying it will further encourage misuse of the law. The Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was passed in the legislative assembly last month.

The forum has presented a seven-point memorandum to UP governor Anandiben Patel and urged her not to notify the amendment law. The forum has argued that the proposed new law goes against the right to religious freedom guaranteed in the Constitution and that its provisions are opaque and prone to widespread misuse.
At a media conference held in Lucknow on August 19, A.C. Michael, a functionary of the forum, said the existing anti-conversion law of the state was by itself under misuse. “There have been widespread instances of its misuse. People have been harassed due to personal enmity and with malicious intention, leading to unnecessary burden on the courts in terms of cases,” he said.

Those who attended the media conference included former Lucknow University professor Ramesh Dixit, a renowned scholar of constitutional law and politics; human rights activist Meenakshi Singh; Father Denis Naresh Lobo, vicar general of the Catholic Diocese of Lucknow; and Dalit-Muslim activist Salahuddin Shibu.

The forum suggested that the police, judiciary and officials undergo training and sensitisation to be able to extend assistance to those facing false accusations under the law and public awareness exercises be undertaken to prevent misuse of the law.

The Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2024 alters the original anti-conversion law of the state—the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021—by making its provisions more stringent and, according to critics, susceptible to misuse.

The bill has various provisions that make it stricter than the existing law. It has increased the maximum punishment from 10 years to life imprisonment, made the process of getting bail more difficult and added the angle of ‘foreign funding’.

The changes to the law will now target anyone who threatens, attacks, marries, promises to marry, conspires or indulges in the trafficking of a woman, minor, or any person with the intention of conversion, categorising these actions as severe crimes. Such offences will have penalties of 20 years to life imprisonment.

Since 2017, multiple BJP-ruled states have enacted or amended anti-conversion laws to restrict religious conversions through marriage, deceit, coercion or enticement.

Of the most high-profile cases under the UP anti-conversion law in these four years has been the arrest of vice-chancellor Rajendra Bihari Pal of the government-aided Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences in Prayagraj, along with seven others, for alleged mass conversion of people into Christianity. Pal was granted bail by the Supreme Court in March this year.

This article is originally published on https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/why-rights-group-united-christian-forum-is-opposing-uttar-pradesh-anti-conversion-bill-2587238-2024-08-24