Bill on ‘Freedom to follow Religion (Revised)’ was passed in Chhattisgarh

Mumbai : The ‘Freedom of Religion (Revised) Bill 2006 was passed in Chhattisgarh Assembly yesterday. Under this Bill, strict action can be taken against those who are forcibly converting people to other religions. Under this the accused can be sentenced to imprisonment of 4 years and fined upto Rs.25,000/-.

In this session of the Assembly, the Government passed the Bill disregarding the opposition parties as the Bill was very important from the viewpoint of preventing conversions. There is a provision under the said Bill that if a person wants to go back to his original religion, it will not be treated as conversion. If his father or grandfather has converted to other religion and he wants to go back to his original religion, this Bill will be of great help in such cases. There was a provision of sentencing person trying to forcibly convert another person for 1 year imprisonment but with the revised Act, the sentence has been increased to 4 years imprisonment. Anyone who tries to convert without the permission of District Collector, can be sentenced to 3 years term in jail.

During the discussions on the Bill, Shri Ramvichar Netam, the State Home Minister said that the tribals were being forcibly converted all these years. There were drawbacks in the earlier Act of which people were taking advantage. It is not only conversion of religion; there is a veiled conversion of nationalism too.