Ahmedabad, PTI

Archbishop of Gandhinagar Stanislaus Fernandes and others have sought to amend a 2009 petition challenging the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act as they want to further challenge a rule which requires disclosure of `reason’ for conversion.

The amendment application was submitted to the division bench of acting Chief Justice V M Sahai and Justice R P Dholaria yesterday. It would be heard on February 5.

The petition challenges the constitutional validity of of the Act on the ground of freedom of religion.

The Act, which came into force in 2003, aims to stop the religious conversions by use of force or through allurement.

The petition challenges Section 3 which necessitates a one-month advance permission of the district magistrate for mass conversion ceremony and Section 5 which requires that a converted person must intimate about it to the district magistrate within one month.

The petitioners now want to challenge two more provisions which are part of the rules made under the Act in 2007 and hence they are seeking amendment.

As per the rules, a person accepting a new religion needs to submit a form to the DM where he/she has to state the reason for converting and how long he/she has been practising the new religion.

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