Gargi Pant, Law College Dehradun, Uttaranchal University
ABSTRACT
One of the salient features of the Indian constitution is its secular nature or secularism. Secularism means that a state will not have its own religion, will not promote a particular religion, and will not interfere with any person’s religion. Due to the complexity of society and the politicization of religion, anti-conversion laws have been implemented by many states to protect the religion of their citizens. As the anti-conversion laws focus only on unlawful conversion, they should have upheld Article 25 but the presence of the reverse onus clause in the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018 makes it strenuous to exercise the rights provided under Articles 14, 19, 21, and 25. In this paper the case study of the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018 has been taken into consideration. This paper uses a descriptive approach while discussing the validity of the reverse onus clause in the Anti- conversion laws. The data collection has been done through documentation and reports. The paper depicts that the reverse onus clause in the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018 does not satisfy the articles in the constitution of India.
Keywords: Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018, reverse onus clause, religion, anti-conversion, allurement, convincing for conversion.
