

📣 JOIN NOW 📣: The Express Explained Telegram Channel Maintenance & inheritance This includes those who committed the offence omitted to act and prevent the offence and aided, abetted, counselled or procured people for committing the offence. Even in the police inquiry, if the Magistrate is not satisfied, criminal action under Section 11 of the Ordinance can be initiated against persons who “caused” the conversion. The UP law goes further, placing this burden of proof on people who “caused” or “facilitated” the conversion and not on the individual.

The Himachal law has a similar provision. The MP law places on the person converted the burden of proving that the conversion was done without any coercion or illegality. The UP law allows the same people as allowed by the MP law to file a complaint. The Himachal law says that prosecution cannot be initiated without the prior sanction of an officer not below the rank of a sub-divisional magistrate. The MP law also says that no police officer below the rank of a sub-inspector can investigate an offence under the law. Guardians of the person converted can file a complaint only with the permission of a court. Section 4 of the MP law states that there cannot be an investigation by a police officer except on the written complaint of the person converted or the person’s parents/siblings. The Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2019 that came into effect last week, requires a 30-day prior “declaration of intention to convert”.

The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religious Ordinance, 2020 promulgated in November, too requires a 60-day notice but also requires the Magistrate to conduct a police inquiry to ascertain the real intention behind the conversion.
