The Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018 is a state-level legislative Act that aims to prevent religious conversions achieved through misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement, fraudulent means, or marriage. The Act was signed by the Governor on April 18, 2018, after the Uttarakhand High Court suggested the state legislate a "Freedom of Religion Act" to check "sham" conversions, particularly those facilitating marriage. The stated purpose of the Act is to reinforce the importance of every religion under the Right to Freedom of Religion in Articles 25, 26, 27, and 28 of the Constitution of India.
The Act's core mechanism is outlined in Section 3, which prohibits converting or attempting to convert any person from one religion to another by the prohibited means. Section 6 provides that any marriage done for the sole purpose of conversion may be declared null and void by the Family Court. Furthermore, Section 8 mandates that any person desiring to convert must give a declaration at least one month in advance to the District Magistrate. The original Act stipulated a prison term of up to five years for a conviction of "forced or fraudulent" conversion.
The Act has been significantly amended by the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2022, making the offense cognizable and non-bailable. The 2022 amendment increased the punishment for unlawful conversion to a minimum of two years and a maximum of seven years, with a fine of at least Rs 25,000. For the conversion of a minor, woman, or a person belonging to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, the punishment was set between two to ten years. The onus of proof that the conversion was not forced lies on the person converting and the person converted. This Act connects to similar anti-conversion laws enacted in other states, such as the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2024. A further amendment, the Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2025, was approved by the Cabinet to make the law even more stringent, proposing a maximum punishment of life imprisonment for some offenses.