MUMBAI, Aug. 25 -- Twenty civil society organisations, women's groups and religious bodies on Monday expressed their strong opposition to the Maharashtra government's Freedom of Religion Act, 2026, terming it a "threat to constitutional freedoms, privacy and social harmony". They demanded that the implementation of the law, which comes into force on August 28, be put on hold until the Supreme Court decided the challenge to similar enactments made by some other states. At a press conference held at the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh, speakers, including Tushar Gandhi, Fr Frazer Mascarenhas, advocate Lara Jessani, advocate Irfan Engineer and activist Sandhya Gokhale alleged that the law would subject personal decisions on faith and marriage to State scrutiny, reverse the burden of proof onto the accused and create scope for harassment of interfaith couples and religious institutions. The Act requires a person intending to convert, as well as the person or institution organising the conversion, to give 60 days' prior notice to the State. It also provides for public objections, police inquiry and post-conversion declarations. The burden of proving that a conversion is lawful is placed on the person who caused or facilitated it. Offences listed under the anti-conversion enactment are cognisable and non-bailable. Advocate Lara Jessani of the People's Union for Civil Liberties said that the government had not established the need for the legislation. "There was no commission, no data to show that religious conversion is rampant in the state," she said. Jessani also criticised the broad definition of the term "allurement" used in the Act, which includes gifts or material benefits, employment, free education in a religious institution, a promise to marry, a better lifestyle and divine healing, among other things. She added that objections raised during the legislative process were not adequately considered, demanding the Act not be brought into force on August 28. She also argued that interfaith couples already faced harassment and that Dalits and Adivasis should be free to change their religion to escape caste oppression. Fr Frazer Mascarenhas, former principal of St Xavier's College, said the Act could put ordinary educational and religious services under scrutiny, questioning how good education could be deemed an inducement. Advocate Irfan Engineer asserted existing laws were sufficient to deal with forced or fraudulent conversions, calling it a political law. Tushar Gandhi described the legislation as a step towards authoritarianism, while activist Sandhya Gokhale alleged the law reflected attempts to control women's choices. In a joint release, the coalition highlighted that Christian organisations in Mumbai faced around 30 incidents of harassment by vigilante groups over eight months, and pointed to two Pune cases where police erroneously invoked the Act before its actual commencement date....