The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The Rajasthan government has informed the Supreme Court that it is in the process of bringing an anti-conversion law.
The state made the submission while filing an affidavit in response to a PIL that seeks to prevent fraudulent and forceful religious conversions, reported LiveLaw.
The Rajasthan government told the SC that presently it does not have any specific law that deals with religious conversions but “it is in the process of bringing its own legislation and till such time will strictly abide by the law on the subject and guidelines issued by the Supreme Court.”
The PIL was filed by BJP member advocate Ashwini Upadhyaya back in 2022. In the petition, Upadhyaya sought directions to the Union and States to take “stringent steps to control fraudulent religious conversion and religious conversion by intimidation, threatening, deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits,” reported LiveLaw.
While considering the petition in November 2022, a bench of Supreme Court Justices M.R. Shah and Hima Kohli had observed that if true, forceful religious conversions were a serious issue which could affect the security of the nation.
The SC had sought responses from the Centre and states on the matter.
However, the court had also taken exception to some of the statements made by the petitioner in the petition, which were derogatory towards minority religions and had asked Upadhyaya to remove them. Subsequently, the SC had removed the petitioner’s name from the causetile and changed it to “In Re: The Issue Of Religious Conversion.”
Along with the petition, the court has also tagged other PILs which challenge laws passed by states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat regarding religious conversions, reported LiveLaw.