Religion can’t bar a person from rendering own version of it: SC

Religion can’t bar a person from rendering own version of it: SC

What has happened?

It is a violation of secularism for a religion to bar a person from writing a book about it or portraying it through a painting, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud orally observed on Monday.

Court observed

• A religion cannot be adamant that its sole portrayal should be confined to just one “book.”
• It cannot say that others are not free to sketch or render their version or ideas about the religion
• Such a bar is just not enforceable
• Any injunction [on the film] will be slightly stretching the constitutional principles 

Background

• A plea by Sikhism’s highest religious bodies to stop the release of the National Award-winning and Censor Board-certified movie Nanak Shah Fakir for having a human characterise Guru Nanak
• The film won the National Award for promoting national integrity.