The Madhya Pradesh government approved the Draft Law on Freedom of Religion 2020 as an ordinance in a special session of the cabinet, after which it was sent to the governor for his assent.
The state government has taken the ordinance route as has the Uttar Pradesh government to erase its strict law prohibiting forced religious conversion under its Draft Law on Freedom of Religion 2020. This comes after the assembly’s three-day session was canceled due to reported high cases of COVID-19.
Madhya Pradesh Minister of the Interior @drnarottammisra answering the question about the demolition of a house in #Ujjain then #clashes Between @BJYMMP & residents of Muslim-dominated Begum bagh say: “Pathar jaha se aaenge, wahi se toh nikale jaenge.” @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/PBr1Exhcnm
– Iram Siddique (@Scribbly_Scribe) December 29, 2020
The three-day assembly session was canceled by a joint committee of all the leaders on Sunday night after some 60 people, including officials, employees and five MLAs, tested positive for COVID-19.
Claiming to stop religious conversions through misrepresentation, seduction, force, threat, undue influence, coercion, marriage or any other “fraudulent means,” the MP’s bill provides jail terms of one to five years. , with a fine of 25,000 rupees, in such cases. The penalty for a person using “misrepresentation” or “spoofing” for religious conversion will be higher, including a prison term of 3 to 10 years and a fine of Rs 50,000.
In contrast, the Uttar Pradesh Illegal Conversion of Religion Prohibition Ordinance, 2020, passed last month, says that religious conversion using any of the above means, including misrepresentation and impersonation, would carry a prison term of one to one. five years and a fine of Rs. 15,000.
In a significant deviation from the UP ordinance, although regarding the FIR registration in such cases, the MP’s bill says that these can be dealt with only by police personnel not less than the rank of a sub-inspector, and that only parents and siblings of those affected The individual can file a complaint directly. In the event that a guardian or custodian wants to register a crime, he must go to a Court of Sessions authorized to deal with these matters and obtain a court order.
The other big difference between the MP bill and the UP law is the provision of support for women and the property rights of children in the marriage in question in the legislation planned by the government of Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The issue of maintenance will be dealt with in accordance with Section 125 of the CrPC.
In both states, marriages that are shown to have been entered into for the sole purpose of religious conversion or that are carried out without proper notification to the district administration can be declared null and void by family courts.
A return to one’s original religion, as in the religion in which one is born or practiced by one’s father, will not be counted as a conversion.
Although both the UP law and the MP Bill provide for a jail term of two to ten years in the event that a person who converts is a minor or belongs to the programmed caste or programmed tribe, the MP legislation talks about a fine of 50,000 rupees against 25,000 rupees ABOVE.
Both legislations speak of three to five years in prison for religious organizations or individuals who are considered to carry out mass conversions, but again the penalty in MP is higher (Rs 1 lakh) than in UP (Rs 50,000).
In both states, organizations or priests doing conversions must inform the district administration about 60 days before the conversion date, otherwise the organization may cancel their registration and the priest or facilitator will face jail time. But the MP Bill stipulates a higher penalty again (of 50,000 rupees and a prison term of 3-5 years) in such cases, compared to one year extended up to five years and 25,000 rupees in UP.
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