Haryana Prevention Of Unlawful Conversion Of Religion Bill, 2022.:
The Haryana Cabinet approved the draft of the Haryana Prevention of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill, 2022.
- It seeks to prohibit religious conversion effected through misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage or for marriage, by making it an offence.
- According to the draft Bill, the burden of proof “lies on the accused”. The draft Bill will now be tabled before the Assembly.
- The Bill, on the lines of recent anti-conversion laws passed in other States, proposes to make conversion by marriage an offence.
- It also prescribes higher punishment for conversion of minors, women, and members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.
- The burden of proof as to whether a conversion was not affected through misrepresentation, use of force, under threat, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage or for marriage for the purpose of carrying out conversion lies on the accused.
- The draft Bill provides for declaring marriages null and void, which were solemnized by concealment of religion.
