India's Uttarakhand state has become the latest state in the country to enact legislation tightening restrictions around religious conversions.
The Freedom of Religion bill, signed by Gov. Krishna Kant Paul on April 18, requires residents of the state to obtain permission from the government before converting to another religion.
Those who are found to be in violation of the law could face a prison term ranging from one to five years. Those who convert minors, women or people belonging to a Scheduled Caste (Dalit) or a Scheduled Tribe (Tribal) could face a minimum of two years in prison, according to Morning Star News.
According to Hindustan Times, the law was drafted four months after the Uttarakhand High Court recommended that the government introduce a Freedom of Religion Act to reduce the cases of religious conversions, some of which are conducted "only to facilitate the process of marriage."
Under the new legislation, those who are converting for the purpose of marriage are required to submit an affidavit with the District Magistrate at least one month prior to the wedding, Morning Star News reported.
Additionally, marriages that are conducted for the sole purpose of religious conversion may be nullified by a family court. Family members of a person who has converted are allowed to file a case to nullify the marriage.
Similar anti-conversion measures have also been enforced in other Indian states such as Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand.
Critics complain that such laws are being used by Hindu extremists to accuse Christians of forcible or fraudulent conversions.
"It fails the very basic test of explaining to the world the need for having such a law," Dr. John Dayal, spokesman for the United Christian Forum and the All India Catholic Union, told Morning Star News.
Dayal argued that the legislation was driven by the agenda of the ruling party, which he says came to power on a "rabid communal platform."
"There is no forcible or fraudulent conversion in the state to the Christian or Muslim or Sikh faiths shown either by the Census data or by the police statistics. In the absence of such reality, the only explanation can be that it is to threaten the minority communities or to curb the freedom of religion of the Dalit and backward communities whose rights are being crushed by the upper castes which exercise political power in the state," he continued.
Dr. Dayal wants the law to be challenged in court as well as in the "court of public opinion."
The state, which is under the rule of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has a Christian population of only 0.37 percent.
