Christian congregations across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region have begun asking worshippers to sign self-declaration forms before Sunday prayer meetings, ahead of the Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Act, 2026, which comes into force on Friday, 28 August. Pastors leading the initiative do not describe it as paperwork. They call it insurance, a hedge against being accused later of pressuring someone into changing faith.
The form asks each worshipper to confirm that he or she is attending “of their own choice” and under no pressure, inducement or threat of any kind. Each form also requires a passport-size photo along with a government identity number, either Aadhaar or PAN. Pastors say the forms, circulated in English, Marathi and Hindi, are meant only as a record to produce if questioned, not a legal requirement of the Act itself.
The move follows a run of Sunday disruptions at prayer halls in Vasai, Virar, Mira-Bhayandar, Palghar and Thane. Between April and July, nine FIRs were registered over five such incidents, seven against organisers or worshippers and two against Bajrang Dal members. In one widely reported case, a prayer meeting of 100 to 150 people at Dhiraj Shopping Centre in Vasai East was disrupted on 12 April by a group that included Bajrang Dal members. Five FIRs followed within a day, and the lopsided count became part of the story itself: four named the person who had organised the prayer meeting, while only one was filed against the men who broke it up.
At New Hope Church in Virar, which now keeps its gate locked behind an iron grille during services, Pastor Steven Rozario handed the forms to his congregation of about 30 earlier this month, so they could prove, if ever challenged, that no one had been forced or lured into attending. Rozario said police in most such cases had not booked those responsible for the disruptions, and that the new law had effectively given troublemakers a free pass.
A pastor from a city near the Mumbai metropolitan area spoke to Christian Today on condition of anonymity and said that the same wariness has crept in among pastors in his own city. “Earlier if someone came and said, ‘Pastor, please pray for me,’ you prayed. Finished. You didn’t think beyond that. Now you think twice. Who is this person? Why have they come? Tomorrow will somebody say we called them here or pressured them?” he said. “Nobody should be forced to change their religion. We all agree on that. But people should also be free to walk into a church, sit, pray and go home without everybody becoming suspicious of it. That freedom also matters.”
For long-time worshippers, the change has been unsettling. Anita Patel, 55, a Christian of 16 years, said she had never before had to declare in writing why she attends church, and that it felt strange needing paperwork for a freedom once taken for granted. Not everyone sees it only as a burden. Robin Alexander, who sings at New Hope Church, called it a simple safeguard, proof that people attend entirely of their own will.
Devdan Tribhuvan, a pastor in Bhandup and state president of the Maharashtra Christian Development Association, said the forms were purely a security measure, kept by pastors rather than filed with any authority. Fr Nigel Barrett, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Bombay, called the practice a sensible precaution, pointing to the way outfits such as the Bajrang Dal have taken to walking into prayer halls uninvited. At the same time, he said it was unfortunate that Christians now felt they had to put their voluntary faith on paper.
Gautam Ravariya, the Bajrang Dal’s Konkan region co-convenor, said his outfit stays within the law, watching prayer meetings on social media and passing information to police rather than acting on its own, though he conceded some of his members have also faced FIRs. He gave a different account of how conversions happen, describing a two-step pattern: churches helping struggling families first, then steering them toward the faith.
Asked about the forms, Mira Bhayandar Vasai-Virar Police Commissioner Niket Kaushik said his office was “unaware of any such consent form” and had seen no recurring pattern in his jurisdiction. Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police Manoj Kumar Sharma said the city had largely stayed peaceful, and that a memorandum from civil society groups over repeated disruptions was still being examined.
The Act, notified after receiving presidential assent in the final days of July, makes it a criminal offence to secure a conversion through coercion, fraud, force, threats, misrepresentation, inducement or undue influence. Under its provisions, it falls to the person accused of carrying out the conversion, not the person who complained, to prove in court that it was freely chosen. A first violation can draw up to seven years in prison, with a steeper fine where the convert is a minor, woman, person of unsound mind or member of a Scheduled Caste or Tribe. Repeat offences can draw up to ten years.
Church leaders in the region say the coming weeks will show whether the forms offer any real protection, or whether the disruptions of the past five months are only the beginning.
