The Right To Freedom Of Religion In India- A Critical Study In Reference To The Legislative And Judicial Approaches Of The State
- IJLLR Journal
- Mar 25
- 1 min read
Deekshita Das1, Research Scholar (Ph.D. Law), NUSRL, National University of Studies and Research in Law, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
ABSTRACT
The Religious Freedom Laws in India have been passed in 8 states, namely, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and an ordinance has also been passed in Uttar Pradesh in the year 2020. These Religious Freedom Laws are framed in order to condemn the forceful conversions in India. The judiciary also holds the view that Religious Freedom Laws are constitutional unless it scraps down one's personal right to follow or practice a religion of its own choice. However, the laws passed by the Indian states reflect a loosely attached rule of conversion which also lacks well-defined parameters for identifying forceful and voluntary conversions, and also uniform definitions on fraud, allurement etc. Nevertheless, the basal point for a legal loophole lies where one fails to differentiate between such conversions and theories like Secularism are used to protect the malicious intentions of the converter, misinterpretating Right to Conversion with Right to Propagation under Article 25 of the Indian Constitution. Analyzing the constitutional provisions of Right to Religion and one's private right to convert his/her religion on voluntary will, can be successful only if read with the understanding of the jurisprudence of law and the judicial processes.
Thus, the ongoing research of the author is to try to bring out a holistic approach in studying the laws from an angle of equality and justice, keeping in mind the religious persecution across the country.
Keywords: Religion, Anti-Conversion Laws, Judiciary, Constitution, Propagation of Religion, Secularism.
