Anti-conversion Bill to be tabled in Goa Assembly
The three-day monsoon session of the Goa Assembly will begin on Monday, with a discussion likely on the proposed anti-conversion legislation, which has drawn criticism from Opposition parties.
The House will take up 883 questions during the session, submitted by members of both the ruling and Opposition parties, Joint Secretary (Legislature Department) Mohan Gaonkar told PTI on Sunday.
The Goa Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Bill, 2026, will be tabled during the session. The BJP-led State Cabinet on Wednesday approved the bill, proposing life imprisonment among other stringent penalties.
The bill proposes strict punishment for religious conversion allegedly carried out through force, coercion, undue influence, allurement, fraudulent means or marriage.
Under the bill, offenders may face life imprisonment, and it proposes fines of at least Rs 50,000 and compensation of up to Rs 5 lakh to victims.
The Congress has alleged that the bill is aimed at flaring communal tension in the otherwise peaceful State.
Independent MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, who supports the Government, also claimed that such a law would create communal disharmony in the coastal state and appealed to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to reconsider tabling the bill in the assembly.
The strength of the 40-member Goa Assembly has been reduced to 38 following the deaths of two MLAs — then Agriculture Minister Ravi Naik and Taleigao MLA Jennifer Monserrate.
