GANDHINAGAR: Four months after the enactment of the Freedom of Religion Act, 2003, by the Gujarat Assembly, there is no one in the Modi government who can stand up and say that the law banning forced conversion from one religion to another has taken effect in the state.
No one in the Sachivalaya — not even state parliamentary and legal affairs minister Ashok Bhatt — is willing to say whether this controversial piece of legislation has been put into practice.
Bhatt evades queries on the issue saying “only the state home department can tell”. The home department is tight-lipped on the issue.
Sources concede that the department had not even come up with the simple notification necessary for initiating the implementation of the Act, but failed to say why.
It is only after the home department issues the notification that rules, based on the notification, can be framed. And only when rules are framed would the district collector, the main executing agent, be able to allow or disallow conversions under the new law. Insiders add it may take at least another fortnight for the notification to be out.
It is surprising that the government, which showed haste in passing the Bill, is dragging its feet in enforcing it. However, insiders say the government has initiated a process to make the law stricter.
If the Act, as passed in the assembly, states that the priest performing the conversion must take the permission of the district magistrate, a senior home department official says the rules may ensure that even the organiser of the event has to take such permission 30 days before the actual function.
The proposed rules also specify that Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists need not take any permission for converting anyone, as they are all “fundamentally Hindus”.
The Act provides that the rules need be placed before the state legislature “not less than 30 days before” an assembly session. The next session is scheduled in September.
A Sachivalaya official quoted Section 8 of the Act which states, “The state government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make rules for carrying out the provisions of this Act.”
The official insisted that framing of rules or the notification of the Act is not necessary for its implementation. Rules for several Acts have not been formed for decades and yet they are under implementation, he said.
Rights organisations are so far unwilling to go to court, challenging the Act, as they say that as far as they are concerned, the law does not exist as no notification has been issued