{"id":35177,"date":"2018-10-31T15:37:33","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T10:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=35177"},"modified":"2018-10-31T15:37:33","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T10:07:33","slug":"articles-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/articles-of-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Articles Of Faith:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #00ccff;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/religion-faith-constitution-secular-india-supreme-court-articles-of-faith-2-4840710\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Articles Of Faith<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Supreme Court\u2019s places of worship ruling betrays a selective reading of constitutional provisions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Supreme Court judgment in State of Gujarat v Islamic Relief Committee.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SC observed that a \u201csubstantial part of taxpayers\u2019 money cannot be granted for repairing religious structures\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The Case:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under appeal before the apex court was the Gujarat High Court\u2019s directive to the state government to repair religious places damaged during the communal frenzy in 2002 and recovering its costs from those guilty of the devastation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The state government came in appeal to the SC and filed before it a scheme for awarding a small compensatory contribution to the trustees of each of the damaged properties.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Issue:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Interpretation of Article 27 and the omission of any reference to another highly relevant provision of the Constitution.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Article 27:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Article 27 proclaims: \u201cNo person shall be compelled to pay any taxes the proceeds of which are specifically appropriated in payment of expenses for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Differing views:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SC observed that a \u201csubstantial part of taxpayers\u2019 money cannot be granted for repairing religious structures\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, it is argued that getting a damaged religious place repaired and realising its cost from those who had damaged it shall not be seen as \u201cpromotion or maintenance\u201d of religion.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And if it is seen, then the quantum of expenditure involved \u2014 be it substantial or meagre \u2014 must be irrelevant.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is nothing in the language of Article 27 suggesting that the prohibition applies only if the amount spent is \u201csubstantial\u201d. Who will determine, and by what criteria, whether an amount is substantial or trivial?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Nature of secularism in India:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India does not practise secularism in absolute sense, nor is it mandated by the constitution to do so.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The constitution grants every individual citizen of India his\/her freedom of religion.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, be it Article 290A or Article 48 \u2014 which mandates that the state protect the cow and its progeny \u2014 these provisions of the Constitution determine that the nature and parameters of secularism in our country is restricted.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Judicial selectivity:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Article 290A obligated the state to pay from the Consolidated Fund of the state of Kerela and the Consolidated Fund of the State of Tamil Nadu every year a fixed sum to the Travancore Devaswom Fund and the Devaswom Fund respectively for maintenance of Hindu temples and shrines in the territories transferred to the state on the 1<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">st<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> day of November 1956, from the State of Travancore-Cochin.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This was a religious obligation independent India had inherited from the two erstwhile princely states referred to in the Article as a precondition for their joining the Indian Union.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The provision clearly clashes with the general principle of Article 27.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is argued by the author of this article that deciding some cases on the basis of our concept of qualified secularism but invoking the ideal of absolute secularism in some others amounts to a judicial selectivity that does not stand to reason.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Articles Of Faith:\u00a0 Supreme Court\u2019s places of worship ruling betrays a selective reading of constitutional provisions. Context: Supreme Court judgment in State of Gujarat v Islamic Relief Committee. SC observed that a \u201csubstantial part of taxpayers\u2019 money cannot be granted for repairing religious structures\u201d. The Case: Under appeal before the apex court was the Gujarat&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/articles-of-faith\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Articles Of Faith:\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704770096},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}