How to Change your Religion Legally in Karnataka (Bangalore)

Home BlogHow to Change your Religion Legally in Karnataka (Bangalore)

How to Change your Religion Legally in Karnataka (Bangalore)

Religion is a system of beliefs, practices, rituals, and moral codes that centres around questions of existence, purpose, the divine, and the sacred. It often provides a framework for understanding life, guiding behaviour, and fostering community among its adherents. Religions vary widely across cultures and history, but they generally share some common elements.

While there are many religions practiced globally, the major ones are Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Sikhism. Not everyone adheres to a religion. Secularism emphasizes separation from religious institutions, and individuals may identify as atheists (no belief in deities) or agnostics (uncertain about the existence of deities). Religion, in its diversity, continues to be a profound force in shaping human societies and individual lives.

People may choose to leave the religion they were born into and embrace another for a variety of deeply personal, social, or spiritual reasons. The decision is often influenced by individual experiences, beliefs, and circumstances. At times inter caste marriage also in some cases is a primary reason for one to give up the religion they practice since birth and accept another one.

While conversion can be transformative, it often comes with challenges, such as, Social Stigma, Identity Crisis or Cultural Adjustments.

The choice to leave one’s birth religion and embrace another is often a complex and highly individual journey. In Karnataka the right to freedom of practicing the religion of one’s choice is governed by The Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, this is a legislation aimed at regulating religious conversions in the state of Karnataka, India. It seeks to prohibit unlawful conversions, particularly those carried out through force, fraud, coercion, allurement, or misrepresentation.

Here’s an overview of the procedure as per this act on how to convert one’s religion for rightful reasons without undue influence:

The person intending to convert the religion can do so by filing a declaration, such can be before the conversation or after the conversion, here below are the steps as outlined in the act for the benefit of the reader of this blog post:

Declaration before conversion of religion and pre-report about conversion:-

One who desires to convert his religion, shall give a declaration in Form-I at least thirty days in advance to the District Magistrate or the Additional District Magistrate specially authorized by the District Magistrate in this regard of his residing district or place of birth within the state.
The religious converter who performs conversion ceremony for converting any person of one religion to another religion, shall give thirty days advance notice in Form-II of such intended conversion, to the District Magistrate or the Additional District Magistrate specially authorized by the District Magistrate of the district from where the proposed converter hails.
The District Magistrate, after receiving the information shall notify proposed religious conversion on the notice board of the office of the District Magistrate and in the office of the Tahsildar calling for objections. If any objections are received within thirty days, he shall get an inquiry conducted through officials of Revenue or Social Welfare Department with regard to genuine intention, purpose and cause of the proposed conversion.
If the District Magistrate comes to a conclusion based on the said inquiry of the commission of an offence under this Act, he shall cause the concerned police authorities to initiate criminal action.
Such conversion shall be considered illegal and void.
Whoever contravenes the provisions shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than one year but may extend to three or five years and shall also be liable to fine which shall not be less than rupees ten thousand and up to twenty-five thousand.

Declaration post conversion of Religion

The converted person shall send a declaration in the Form-III within thirty days of the date of conversion, to the District Magistrate of the District or the Additional District Magistrate specially authorized by the District Magistrate in this regard in which he is residing prior to the date of conversion.
The District Magistrate shall notify religious conversion on the notice board of the office of the District Magistrate and in the office of the Tahsildar and will call for objections in such cases where no objections were called earlier.
The said declaration shall contain the requisite details, i.e; the particulars of the converted person such as date of birth, permanent address, the present place of residence, Father‟s/husband‟s name, the religion to which the converted person originally belonged and the religion to which he has converted, the date and place of conversion and nature of process gone through for conversion along with a copy of the identity card or the Aadhar card.
The converted person shall appear before the District Magistrate within twenty-one days from the date of sending/filing the declaration to establish his identity and confirm the contents of the declaration.
If any objections are received within thirty days, the District Magistrate shall record the name and particulars of objectors and the nature of objection and shall get an inquiry conducted through officials of Revenue or Social Welfare Department with regard to genuine intention, purpose and cause of the conversion.
If the District Magistrate based on the said inquiry comes to a conclusion of the commission of an offence under this Act, he shall cause the concerned police authorities to initiate criminal action for contravention of the provisions as per the act.
The contravention of the provisions as per the act shall have the effect of rendering the said conversion illegal and void.
If no objections are received for such conversion, the District Magistrate shall record the factum of declaration and confirmation in a register maintained for this purpose. Further District Magistrate shall issue an official notification and shall simultaneously intimate the concerned authority about such conversion.
For the purpose of this sub-section “Concerned authority” means his employer, officials of the revenue department, social welfare department, backward classes welfare department, minority welfare department and other concerned department, urban and rural local bodies, Principals or Head Masters of the Educational Institutions, etc.
On receipt of such intimation the concerned authority shall cause to be entered in the relevant official records about conversion as well as reclassify the person converted for his entitlement to enjoy social status or to receive economic benefits from the Government that he was getting prior to conversion.

Trust this blogpost was helpful for you to understand the procedure for religion conversion and how to get this done following the provisions as per the legislation.

Feel free to write to us at mail@lawyersonia.com or call at +91 9845944896 if you wish to consult or discuss your matter. “Sonia and Partners” is a Boutique law firm led by Adv. Sonia Rajesh supported by a team of qualified and among the Best Lawyers in Bangalore practicing in the area of Family Law and Criminal defence serving Citizens of India, Overseas Indians, NRIs and Global International Clients.