What is the legal process for changing your religion in Karnataka?

Introduction

Religion is a system of beliefs, practices, rituals, and moral codes that revolve around questions of existence, purpose, divinity, and the sacred. Religion is often viewed as a framework for understanding life, guiding behavior, and cultivating community among its adherents. However, religions differ widely across cultures and history but share some fundamental characteristics.

Even though there are numerous religions practiced in the world, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and Sikhism are the most common ones. It is important to remember that not everyone adheres to a religion. In secularism, individuals identify themselves as atheists (no belief in deities) or agnostics (uncertainty about the existence of deities). Religion continues to play a significant role in shaping human societies and individual lives, despite its diversity.

The decision to leave one's religion and embrace another may be influenced by several deeply personal, social, or spiritual factors. These factors often include one's beliefs, experiences, or circumstances. At times, intercaste marriages can also be a primary reason for people to leave the religion they have been practicing since birth and adopt a different one.

Even though conversion can be transformative, it can also come with challenges, such as social stigma, identity crises, or cultural adjustments, which can complicate the process.

The choice to leave one’s birth religion and embrace another can be complex and highly individual in nature. The Karnataka Protection of the Right to Freedom of Religion Act is a legislation in the state of Karnataka, India, that is designed to protect the rights of individuals to practice the religion of their choice, which is a law that regulates the conversion of religious persons in the state of Karnataka. There is a goal of the law to prevent unlawful conversions, especially those that take place through force, fraud, coercion, allurement, or misrepresentation, to prevent it from taking place.

Using this act as a guideline, here is an overview of the procedure that needs to be followed when converting one's religion for legitimate reasons and without being unduly influenced:

For those intent on converting to a different faith, they will have to file a declaration. This declaration may be filed before the discussion takes place or it may be filed after the conversion has taken place. Below are the steps outlined in the act for the benefit of the reader of this blog post:

Conversion declaration and pre-report:

Those who are considering converting to a different religion must prepare a declaration in Form I at least thirty days in advance and submit it to the District Magistrate in the district where they live or were born or the Additional District Magistrate who is specially authorized by the District Magistrate to do so.

The religious converter who performs a conversion ceremony for converting any person of one religion to another religion shall provide thirty days before the intended conversion in Form-II to the District Magistrate or the Additional District Magistrate specifically authorized by the District Magistrate of the district from where the proposed converter hails, of their intended conversion.

Once the District Magistrate has received the information, he or she shall post a notice in the office of the District Magistrate and in the office of the Tahsildar calling for objections regarding the proposed religious conversion. Upon receiving any objections within thirty days, the Revenue Department or the Social Welfare Department will conduct an inquiry to determine whether there is a genuine intention, purpose, and cause behind the proposed conversion.

The District Magistrate shall direct the police authorities to initiate criminal proceedings against any person found guilty of an offense under this Act based on the results of the said inquiry that he has conducted.

The conversion of such property shall be considered illegal and void as a result.

Those who violate these provisions will be punished with a sentence of imprisonment of either description for a term that shall not be less than one year but may be extended to three or five years, as well as a fine that shall not be less than rupees ten thousand and up to rupees twenty-five thousand.

Post-conversion declaration

Within thirty days after the date of conversion, the converted person is required to submit a declaration in Form-III to the District Magistrate of the district or the Additional District Magistrate specially authorized by that District Magistrate in this regard in the district where he is residing before the date of conversion.

The district magistrate will post a notice of religious conversion on the notice board of the District Magistrate's office and in the office of the tahsildar. In cases where objections have not been called previously, the district magistrate will call for objections.

There will be certain information in the declaration, namely the date and location of the conversion, permanent address, current place of residence, the name of the father or husband of the converted person, the religion to which the converted person originally belonged, the religion to which the converted individual has converted, the date and place of conversion, the nature of the conversion process and a copy of the identity card or Aadhar card, that are required for the conversion process to be conducted.

There is a requirement for the converted person to appear before the District Magistrate within twenty-one days of the date on which the declaration was sent/filed to prove his identity and confirm the contents of the declaration.

When a District Magistrate receives objections within thirty days, he or she shall record the names, particulars, and nature of the objection of the objectors. The District Magistrate will have an inquiry conducted through officials of the Revenue Department or the Social Welfare Department, as to whether the conversion was done for a genuine reason, purpose, and cause.

Based on the findings of the District Magistrate based on his investigation of the offense under this Act, he shall order that the concerned police authorities initiate a criminal prosecution for contravention of the provisions as outlined in the Act if he concludes that an offense had been committed.

The violation of the provisions of the act shall result in the conversion being deemed illegal and void as a result of the contravention.

This factum of declaration and confirmation will be recorded by the District Magistrate in a register maintained for this purpose if no objections have been received for this conversion. As well as issuing an official notification about such conversion, the District Magistrate should also inform the concerned authority at the same time.

According to this subsection, a concerned authority can be defined as his employer, officials of the revenue department, the social welfare department, the backward classes welfare department, the minority welfare department, or any other department that is concerned, as well as local authorities in both urban and rural areas, and Principals or Head Masters of Educational Institutions.

After receiving such an intimation, the concerned authority will record the conversion into the relevant official record about the conversion as well as reclassify the converted individual to allow him to retain the social status and economic benefits that he was receiving before the conversion to maintain his entitlements.

The purpose of this blog post is to provide you with information about how to go about converting from one religion to another and the specific steps to be taken to do so according to the provisions of the relevant legislation.