6 months ago
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The Arunachal Pradesh Government has appointed a retired justice of the Gauhati High Court arsenic the president of a high-powered committee (HPC) to analyse the draught rules framed for an “anti-conversion” law introduced astir 5 decades ago.
Brojendra Prasad Katakey, a erstwhile justice of the precocious court, has replaced the State’s Home Minister Mama Natung arsenic the caput of the HPC to survey the draught rules for the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act (APFRA), 1978.
The members of the committee see 2 Ministers, Kento Jini and Balo Raja, 2 bureaucrats, and heads of six organisations – Arunachal Christian Forum (ACF), Indigenous Faith and Cultural Society of Arunachal Pradesh (IFCSAP), Monpa Mimang Tsogpa, Tai Khamti Development Society, Arunachal Vikas Parishad, and the State portion of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
The Committee has been tasked with examining the draught of the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Rules, 1978, successful airy of the High Court’s directives successful September 2024 and law provisions. It has besides been entrusted with consulting the applicable departments and experts, and recommending indispensable changes to guarantee that the rules are accordant with the provisions of the Constitution of India and judicial directions.
The Committee has been further directed to taxable its report, on with the recommendations, to the authorities arsenic soon arsenic imaginable to conscionable the High Court’s deadline.
In September 2024, the Itanagar Bench of the Gauhati High Court ordered the Pema Khandu authorities to finalise the draught rules of the APFRA wrong six months, portion closing a nationalist involvement litigation connected the matter. Advocate Tambo Tamin had filed the litigation.
The ACF has been opposing the “content and intent” of the APFRA, alleging that it targets Christians. It claims that the Act has galore ambiguities to “abridge the cardinal rights” of Christians guaranteed nether Article 25 of the Constitution of India.
Although ACF president Tarh Miri has been included successful the HPC, the organisation stated that the panel’s constitution undermines its request for the scrapping of the APFRA.
The IFCSAP, connected the different hand, has been pressuring the State’s Bharatiya Janata Party authorities to framework the rules accelerated and instrumentality the Act.
