CBCI approaches Supreme Court against Rajasthan’s anti-conversion law
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New Delhi: The Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) has challenged constitutional validity of Rajasthan’s anti-conversion law, the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act, 2025.
As the petition came up, the court issued notice to the state government linking it with several other ongoing challenges to anti-conversion laws from other states, indialegallive.com reported.
The CBCI in its plea argued that the new law gives what it said excessive and arbitrary powers to authorities with certain provisions allowing officials to confiscate property, demolish individuals’ structures or institutions citing allegation of unlawful conversions.
The petitioners reportedly argued that these provisions violate the principle of due process while enabling to implement punitive actions based on suspicion.
The church body pointed out the terms in the law such as ‘allurement,’ ‘misinformation,’ or ‘any other fraudulent method’ are vague and could be misused to target ‘voluntary religious decisions or peaceful religious expression’ further warning that charity or other pastoral works are likely to be ‘misconstrued as coercion’.
The petitioners pointed out that the process for conversion is made cumbersome as the law requires individuals and religious leaders to file advance declarations with district authorities, failing to do so could lead to heavy fines and imprisonment.
The procedure according to the petitioners compels individuals to disclose their personal choices to the state, thus ‘infringing upon privacy and autonomy’.
Alongside, they questioned the reverse burden of proof which requires the accused to prove that a conversion was not forced, claiming that this ‘contradicts fundamental principles of criminal justice’.
The petition further claimed that the anti-conversion law in Rajasthan goes against the core constitutional rights such as ‘equality before the law, freedom of expression, personal liberty, freedom of religion, and the right to property’.