The Maharashtra Cabinet on Thursday approved a draft anti-conversion bill proposing imprisonment of up to seven years and a fine of Rs 5 lakh for unlawful or forced religious conversions, reported The Indian Express.
The bill, Dharma Swatantrya Adhiniyam 2026, also makes it mandatory for persons converting to another religion to seek permission from the authorities, according to PTI.
A person who wishes to convert has to give 60 days notice to the authority, the proposed legislation states. It also mandates that a conversion has to be registered with the authorities within 25 days, failing which it will be considered null and void, PTI quoted an unidentified official as saying.
The bill requires the police to register a first information report and conduct an investigation if a relative of a person seeking to convert files a complaint about it being unlawful.
Offences under the bill will be non-bailable, according to The Indian Express.
The government is expected to table the bill in the ongoing Budget Session of the Assembly, according to the newspaper.
Speaking to reporters, Maharashtra minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nitesh Rane said that a bill against “love jihad” had been approved and a government resolution in this regard would be issued soon.
“This is a law against unlawful conversion and with this bill no one will be able to forcibly marry and convert Hindu girls,” he was quoted as saying.
Rane added that the bill had been drafted taking into consideration constitutional provisions, Supreme Court guidelines and laws in other states.
Love jihad is a Hindutva conspiracy theory that Muslim men trick Hindu women into romantic relationships with the aim of converting them to Islam. The Union home ministry has told Parliament that Indian law has no provision defining such a term.
In February, the Supreme Court sought responses from the Centre and 12 state governments on a petition contending that anti-conversion laws in these states criminalise voluntary and conscience-based change of faith.
Notices were issued to the governments of Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.
The Union government told the court that state governments had sufficient grounds to introduce these laws and that a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had already upheld the validity of such a legislation.
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