Postpone implementation of state anti-conversion law, demand civil society groups

At a press conference held at the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh, speakers alleged that the law would subject personal decisions on faith and marriage to state scrutiny

MUMBAI: Twenty civil society organisations, women’s groups and religious bodies on Monday expressed their strong opposition to the Maharashtra government’s Freedom of Religion Act, 2026, terming it a “threat to constitutional freedoms, privacy and social harmony”. They demanded that the implementation of the law, which comes into force on August 28, be put on hold until the Supreme Court decided the challenge to similar enactments made by some other states.

Mumbai, India - Aug. 24, 2026: Tushar Gandhi ,Adv. Irfan Engineer ,Fr. Frazer Mascarenhas,Shakir Shaikh, during the Joint Civil Society Press Conference at Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sanghin Mumbai, India, on Monday, August 24, 2026. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/Hindustan Times) (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

At a press conference held at the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh, speakers, including Tushar Gandhi, Fr Frazer Mascarenhas, advocate Lara Jessani, advocate Irfan Engineer and activist Sandhya Gokhale alleged that the law would subject personal decisions on faith and marriage to State scrutiny, reverse the burden of proof onto the accused and create scope for harassment of interfaith couples and religious institutions.

The Act requires a person intending to convert, as well as the person or institution organising the conversion, to give 60 days’ prior notice to the State. It also provides for public objections, police inquiry and post-conversion declarations. The burden of proving that a conversion is lawful is placed on the person who caused or facilitated it. Offences listed under the anti-conversion enactment are cognisable and non-bailable.

The lawyer added that objections raised during the legislative process were not adequately considered, and demanded that the Act not be brought into force on August 28, pointing out that similar laws in other states were already being challenged before the Supreme Court. She also argued that interfaith couples already faced harassment and that Dalits and Adivasis should be free to change their religion, including to escape caste oppression.

Fr Frazer Mascarenhas, former principal of St Xavier’s College, said the Act could put ordinary educational and religious services under scrutiny. “According to this law, education can be considered as an inducement to convert. How can a good education be considered as an inducement to convert?” he asked, referring to the institution’s education of poor students from different faiths.

Fr Mascarenhas said that if education, health and such services were criminalised, it would affect poor people from every religion. He also questioned the reversal of the burden of proof. “The law is such that anyone can make an allegation, but I will have to prove that the allegations against me are incorrect,” he added.

Advocate Irfan Engineer said that existing laws were sufficient to deal with forced, fraudulent or coercive conversions. “It is not a pro-people law but a political one,” he said. Engineer alleged that the legislation would be used disproportionately against Muslims and Christians and referred to alleged instances of forced reconversion, stemming from local groups’ refusal to give converted tribals burial rights in Kandhamal.

Tushar Gandhi described the legislation as another step towards what he called a “Manuvadi Hindu Rashtra” and alleged that it was aimed at intimidating marginalised communities and NGOs. “Lokshahi se thokshahi ki taraf jaa rahe hain (we are moving from democracy towards authoritarianism),” he said.

Activist Sandhya Gokhale questioned provisions dealing with the religion of children, and alleged that the law reflected the government’s attempt to control women’s choices.

In its release, the NGO coalition said that the law could disproportionately affect women, young adults, Dalits, Adivasis and religious minorities, and provide another avenue for targeting interfaith couples. It also claimed that Christian organisations in Mumbai had faced around 30 incidents of harassment and attacks by Hindu vigilante groups in the preceding eight months.

The groups also pointed to two Pune cases in which the police invoked the Act before its August 28 commencement date but removed the provisions after the error came to light.