Verghese V Joseph –
Bengaluru: Karnataka government on Thursday promulgated an ordinance to give effect to the anti-conversion bill on Thursday. The cabinet met today to approve the ordinance. The BJP-led government decided to take this route as Assembly and Council were prorogued.
The anti-conversion bill will be discussed in next assembly session, said State Home Minister Araga Jnanendra.
The Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill was passed in the Legislative Assembly in December 2021. It is pending passage in the Legislative Council, where the ruling BJP is one short of majority.
“Cabinet has approved the anti-conversion bill, it will be tabled in the next session, till then ordinance will be in place,” Araga Jnanendra was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Before the cabinet meeting, the state chief minister Basavaraj Bommai had said that his government is going to implement the move through the ordinance route. “Because the Assembly and Council got prorogued, we are placing a proposal to promulgate an ordinance in the Cabinet today,” Bommai said.
It has been reported that the state Home Department has drafted a note which will be circulated during the Cabinet meeting today. The note will make a case for pushing the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill through the ordinance route.
It is believed that the Law Department has stated in its opinion that there are no legal hurdles for bringing the bill to life through the ordinance route.
Reacting to the ordinance, Karnataka Law Minister JC Madhuswamy said, “We’ve taken a decision to go in for ordinance for the anti-conversion law. We will not call it anti-conversion law but Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill. Without any amendments whatever was passed in the Assembly will be made as ordinance. In the near future we are not looking at a assembly session again, we didn’t want to keep it in the dark. It doesn’t have to go to the assembly, it’ll be sent to council.”
The Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill was passed in the Legislative Assembly in December last year. It is pending passage in the Legislative Council, where the ruling BJP is one short of majority.
The controversial bill aims to prohibit religious conversion by way of marriage or inducements such as free marriage, employment among others. The bill proposes imprisonment of 3 to 5 years with a fine of Rs 25,000 for ‘forced’ conversion. Converting a minor, woman or an SC/ST person will attract a jail term of 3 to 10 years, with a Rs 50,000 fine. Mass conversions will attract 3-10 years of jail time, with a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.
Under the proposed law, any person wanting to convert into another religion must intimate the authorities one month in advance. Karnataka will become the ninth state to enact the anti-conversion law.
Earlier in December last year, the Karnataka Assembly had passed the Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021 with a voice vote.
However, Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar has questioned the government’s haste and the need for passing the anti-conversion bill through an ordinance and said that the opposition will oppose the bill.
I think, it is high time that When the provision of ‘Religious Freedom’ envisaged in the Constitution is challenged and misused, jsut because the Assembly or Parliament has majority members to get it passed through Ordinance and Bill, will not render it legal. Hence, an ‘ expert committee’ be comprised by the CBCI comprising ‘prominant retired Judges and legal experts’ and challenge in the Judiciary. Surely, if the police receiives any complaints of ‘ forced converson’, they have the right to appraoch the judiciary and penalize such officals or priests. The Bill if at all be introudced, the concept of ‘ compulsory ‘ grounds are to be studied and clarified to the Christiian community. Besides, the Bill need to put forward the “process” by which a man/ womamn or those above 18 years old, the ‘ legal requirements’ of those who want freely change from ‘ one religion to another’ need to put in balck and white. All these demand thorough study with serious considerations.