The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Rajasthan government to respond to a petition questioning the constitutional validity of the Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2025, a law that imposes stringent jail terms for what the state describes as forced, fraudulent or mass religious conversions.
A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih issued notice on a petition filed by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India and ordered the plea to be tagged with previously filed petitions challenging the provisions of the same statute.
The petitioner has urged the court to hold the 2025 Act “ultra vires and unconstitutional.”
The Rajasthan law prescribes 20 years to life imprisonment for mass conversions allegedly carried out through deception and seven to 14 years for conversions deemed fraudulent.
Conversions involving minors, women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and persons with disabilities through deceit would attract 10 to 20 years of imprisonment, along with a minimum fine of ₹10 lakh.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the bench that similar cases are already pending before the Supreme Court.
In September, another bench had sought responses from multiple states on petitions targeting anti-conversion laws enacted in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, and Karnataka.
The court had clarified then that it would examine requests to stay the operation of these laws only after the states filed their replies.
The Rajasthan government will now have to file its response before the matter is taken up for further consideration.
