State Govt prepares draft of Bill banning forcible conversions




(Published in 'The Hitavada' on 

Home Department scrutinising the draft prior to placing it before the Cabinet for approval

By Kartik Lokhande 

Religious conversions by force or through allurements have been a cause of concern for long, as banning or letting it continue both posed tricky situations for the Government and political parties. However, Maharashtra Government appears to have made up its mind on banning such conversions. It has prepared a draft of a Bill in this regard and Home Department is scrutinising the draft.
Home Minister R R Patil had assured to prepare the draft of a Bill banning religious conversion by force or through allurement, during monsoon session of State Legislature in July 2012. The matter was followed up and Home Department prepared a draft of the Bill. Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar had raised the issue of religious conversions through his non-official Bill that did not come up for discussion for a long time. But, the issue was taken note of and a meeting was called in November 2012 at Vidhan Bhavan, Mumbai. In the meeting chaired by Minister of State (Home) Satej Patil and attended by Mungantiwar, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Nawab Malik, MLA Vivek Pandit, Director General of Police, and Charity Commissioner, the matter was discussed at length apart from the issue of utilisation of foreign contributions received by various NGOs.
The minutes of the meeting were finalised in December 2012. According to sources familiar with the issue, State Government has prepared a draft of the Bill banning religious conversions by force or through allurements. The draft of the Bill was sent to Law and Judiciary Department for scrutiny. After necessary scrutiny, Law and Judiciary Department has returned the draft to Home Department. At present, the draft is with Home Department for further scrutiny. After that, Home Department will submit the draft to the Cabinet for approval and then necessary action will be taken. In the said meeting, Malik opposed the Bill and said that it might be ‘misused’. The Bill might cause discomfort to Christians and Muslims, he alleged.
Since the meeting, sources said, the Government has started compiling information related to foreign contributions received by various NGOs, utilisation of such contributions, and details of NGOs that did not submit utilisation reports in prescribed format. State Government has sought relevant information in this regard from the Central Government. However, Central Government has not provided the information as yet. Minister of State (Home) Satej Patil has sent demi-official communication to the Union Home Minister in this regard, it is learnt. Whether the Bill is finalised and brought up for discussion during budget session of State Legislature starting from March 11, remains to be seen.

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