PUCL condemns Rajasthan Anti-Conversion Bill, vows to block presidential assent

By A Representative 

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Rajasthan, has strongly condemned the passage of the anti-conversion bill in the State Assembly on September 9, 2025, calling it a draconian law that violates fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution. The rights group said the bill, pushed through without debate as the opposition staged a walkout over the Speaker’s handling of the session, represents a dangerous erosion of democratic norms. The PUCL announced that it would lobby the Governor and, if required, the President to withhold assent to the legislation, as it had successfully done in 2005 and 2008.

According to the PUCL, the bill strips individuals of their core right to freedom of conscience by imposing sweeping restrictions on religious conversions. It warned that the provisions override several constitutional protections, infringing upon free speech, interfaith dialogue, choice, equality, and free will. The organisation said that the law’s definitions of “allurement” and “coercion” are excessively broad and arbitrary, with “coercion” even including undefined psychological pressure. It also argued that Section 3, which prohibits conversions and criminalises them even for consenting adults, renders any such act invalid and punishable, while extending liability to anyone who “abets, convinces, or conspires” in a conversion. PUCL noted that this could even criminalise ordinary conversations about faith.

The group also expressed concern about provisions relating to marriage, stating that the law intrudes upon the right to marry, including potentially same-sex unions, while allowing for “ghar wapsi” or reconversions into one’s previous faith without treating it as conversion. PUCL described this clause as vague, arbitrary, and discriminatory, enabling pressure on Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Ambedkarite Dalits, and others to return to their ancestral faiths under the guise of legality.

Particularly alarming, PUCL said, are the punishment provisions, which mandate a minimum of seven years’ imprisonment, extendable to 14 years, and fines up to five lakhs. For cases involving women from Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, minors, or persons with disabilities, the punishment is a minimum of 10 years’ imprisonment, extendable to 20 years, along with a fine of at least 10 lakhs. For so-called mass conversions, the law prescribes a minimum of 20 years in prison, extendable to life, and fines of up to 25 lakhs. PUCL described these as “so draconian that they will not pass muster in any court of law.”

The organisation further criticised provisions placing the burden of proof on the accused rather than the prosecution, requiring District Magistrates to conduct inquiries into all conversions, and treating counselling or convincing someone about faith as a punishable offence. Such clauses, PUCL said, amount to unconstitutional invasions of privacy, violations of free speech, and arbitrary criminalisation.

Recalling its successful interventions in 2005 and 2008, when similar anti-conversion bills were stopped from becoming law after being referred to Presidents A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Pratibha Patil, PUCL said it will once again mobilise constitutional arguments to prevent the present bill from receiving assent. It reaffirmed its commitment to defend the fundamental rights of citizens against laws that restrict freedom of conscience and target minority and marginalised communities.