Sabarimala Reference : Live Updates From Supreme Court 9-Judge Bench [Day 3]

J Nagarathna- hindu religion, you find truth and salvation, there are various parts to that and represented by various sampradaya, denomination and manifestation of various parts. like other religion, there is no simple path to moksha

J Bagchi- although we are not seeing a specific religion, test it on the angle of hindu religion, the religion has wave after wave of philosophical interrogation with self, with life and nature and if at all there is one maker and in this exercise, various philosophers have put in their ideas and these ideas have populated themselves into structures which you say is the idea of sampradaya and in this situation, when a sampradaya is created and a new philosophical challenge or idea creates a antithesis, a group evolves to that, does it become a new sampradaya 

J Bagchi- let us say the sampradaya feels the common belief is one of vegetarian but thereafter a section of it decides that this is not enough, there should be fasting and that becomes a belief- that change of belief, does it become a new sampradaya?

nataraj- yes, new sampradaya keeps on coming

nataraj- there is no rigid structure for sampradaya, it is a matter of faith

J Nagarathna- but sampradaya is something which can come time immemorial, it is something of permanence

J Sundresh- you can come out with new idea or beliefs

J Bagchi- my question is if the sampradaya changes its belief, does it become a new sampradaya or its the same

nataraj- there is no definite meaning

nataraj- it has with reference to article 25 (1) so collectively we have right and it transfers into the denomination to be followed time immemorial and that is protected under article 26

J Bagchi- can the sampradaya change its belief

nataraj-it can

J Sundresh- so you are saying there is no need for a review on this...simply you have to take the existence of a believer

nataraj- a group of a few people may follow particular sampradaya and if its according to their belief, it has to be protected.

Nataraj- sampradaya will not necessarily have any formal structure

nataraj-denomination, no doubt, is an english word denoted in the constitution but when it comes to Indian landscape its called Sampradaya

nataraj- keep see article 394A(3)-"(3) The translation of this Constitution and of every amendment thereof published under this article shall be deemed to be, for all purposes, the authoritative text thereof in the Hindi language."

nataraj- article 26 of the constitution of india which guarantees right to manage religious affairs finds origin in article 44 of the Irish Constitution which itself is based on article 114 of the Polish Constitution, 1921. However, such borrowings must not be used as rigid translation of meaning. The idea and origin of article 26 may be foreign but its interpretation must necessarily be indigenous keeping in mind the indic religions and social, cultural and religious demography of india