Individuals challenging religious practices would break all religions & courts: SC | India News
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday expressed serious apprehension over allowing individuals to challenge religious practices and said it would break every religion and the Constitutional Court as thousands of courts would be stuck with PILs to invalidate customs and norms based on self-assessment of these practices. The comments came from a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justices BV Nagarathna, MM Sundresh, A Amanullah, Arvind Kumar, AG Masih, PB Varale, R Mahadevan and Jayamalya Bagchir while senior advocate Raju Ramachandran said since the Constitution focuses on the protection of an individual, if the fundamental rights of the Constitution are to be upheld constitutionally, the courts must uphold the fundamental rights. Justice Nagarathna of one person said, “If every individual is free to approach the Constitutional Court to question or challenge religious customs and practices, what will happen to our civilization, which is intrinsically linked to religion?” Justice Sundresh said, “In such a situation, every religion and constitutional court will break down as thousands of individuals, with different views on religion and religious practice, will come to the court and clog the system. A religious custom or practice may be regressive from one person’s point of view and an essential religious practice for another. How does the court determine who is right? Does the court judge religious matters? He made it clear that he did not mean to imply that a person, oppressed by a religious practice, has no remedy. He can certainly go to civil court. Debate on fundamental rights and faith-based practices Ramachandran stood firm in his view that fundamental rights of individuals cannot be violated through religious practices. “We are a constitutional civilization, where nothing can violate fundamental rights. Any violation will give the aggrieved person the right to go to court under Article 32 of the Constitution,” he said.
