gandhinagar the gujarat government has proposed amendment in the gujarat freedom of religion act 2003 with an aim to make it more stringent and curb forced conversion by marriages loosely termed by the political leaders outside the assembly as law against love jihadahead of the assembly session cm vijay rupani had promised to bring in a strict law against love jihad the bill which was submitted with the state assembly secretariat on tuesday and is likely to be tabled in the house for discussion and voting on april 1 has proposed stringent measures with minimum jail term of three years in case of conversion of an individual and four years in cases involving minor woman or an scst the maximum jail term is of five years in case of conversion of an individual and seven years in cases involving minor woman or an scst member the amendment seeks to expand the scope of fraudulent means in section 3 of the existing anticonversion act by introducing conversion via marriage this also includes abetment to such marriages either by convincing or aiding a person marriedthe law envisages even stringent measures to stop the religious conversion activity at an institutional level if an organization is found involved maximum punishment is up to 10 years and the fine imposed is rs 5 lakh on each of the members of the organizations involved in the conversion process moreover the organization will be disqualified to get any government grant in three states uttar pradesh madhya pradesh and himachal pradesh where such anticonversion laws have been amended with a view to curbing conversion by marriages the minimum punishment provided for is one yearthe amendment also aims at punishing all those who are involved in the process of forced conversion including any person who aids and abets in the process it also seeks to widen the scope of the term influence for conversion by adding better lifestyle divine blessings or otherwise as forms of allurement the government has proposed shifting of burden of proof to the accused meaning thereby those who are accused of forced conversion will have to establish that the conversion was by free will the burden of proof as to whether a religious conversion was not effected through misrepresentation force undue influence coercion allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage shall lie on the person who has caused the conversion and where such conversion has been facilitated by any person by act omission aid abetment or counselling on such other personthe bill also proposes that such marriages in which there are allegations of forced conversion will be held void by family courts the complaint can be filed by either the victim or the person who is sought to be converted forcibly or through allurement or by any of hisher blood relatives the complaints for the nonbailable offence can be investigated by a police officer not below the rank of a dysp