Sabarimala Reference | Live Updates From Supreme Court 9-Judge Bench [Day 8]

Venugopa: I do believr that the state must have the power of eminent doman, that is it can exercise its powers to acquire by passing of law.

Venugopa: the words acquire property under article 26(c) are not qualified by the words in accordance with law.

J Bagchi: the first two clauses were with regards to core religious activities that is to establish and administer a religion institution and manage itslef. so it is more like an indoor management of a religious institution controlled by the denomination or any section. the last two are secular and therefore governed by general law. the first two being religious have to be restricted to subject clases namely public order, morality and health

Venugopal: article 25(1) is the right of an individual and if one looks at the nature of the rights, they are in the nature of individual rights. that is to say, the individual rights is his freedom of individual conscience, his right to profeess, and practice. on the other hand, in contract, article 26 is the right of institutional autonomy of a religious denomination. and what are those rights to establish and maintain religious and charitable institutions? an individual may also have that right. that is, he may try to do it, and but he has to do it within organised framework of the denomination.

Venugopal: as a matter of logical consistency, I would say that article 25(1) is an individual right which is subject to these restrictions whereas, article 26 is subject to only three restrictions and doesn't bring article 25 but legitimate state goals can be met under public order, morality and health.

assume for the sake of the argument that article 25(2) applies to even religious denomination as well as religion. for the time being, I just want to say that the essential religious practice test has no textual foundation whatsoever in article 25(2)(a).

the test which I can recite from my memory is 'nothing in this article shall prevent the state from making a law to regulate economic, financial, and political activities or secular activities associated with religious practice.' the word essential doesn't come thre.

Venugopal: I was a young lawyer in the Patel Engineering case decided by 7 judge bench and presided over by late CJ Lahoti where J Nariman came and told the bench that when mylords sit in a bench of this strength, really it is in the nature of a seminar more than adversarial litigation. your lordships take on board all point of view and then try to arrive at a proper system of constitutional interpretation. this case is important because it will govern the lives of almost 1.5 billion people in the country. I want to tell, it will be read and scrutinised by constitutional scholars all over the world.

Venugopal: therefore I am constructing article 26 in a manner where legitimate state intervention can be permissible without resorting to article 25(2)(b) which is why Dr Ambedkar said that this is what was intended and nothing more is really necessary.

Venugopal: all legimate goals of the state, and I think this is what fallen from mylords as well, almost all legitimate state goals for intervention in the matter of religion can be resolved in the three heads.

Venugopal: state intervention is not necessarily the panacea for all ills in a religion. it[reforms] can come from within the religion itself. and there is a trend as mentioned in the constitutent assembly debates that reforms ought to come from within the religion itself.

Venugopal: i have taken instructions the tinthakars are embodiment of perfection in terms of how they have lived their lives by the jain idols in general of physical and material pursuits. when you reach that level of perfection, then you are http://worshipped.in other words, humans who have attained the status of divinity and therefore worshipped as gods and not as creator gods.

what has been articulated till now is the general view that there may be imperfection and there may be problems in the manner in which a religion worships and conducts itself. and the remedy lies in state intervention. I am opsing an opposite view that is, in fact, that state intervention in religion has actually resulted in the introduction of politics into religion, which corrupts both the state and the religion.

Venugopal: the restrictions imposed by the state on how religious funds may be managed or invested, even though our scriptures may impose specific obligations on the trustees regarding preservation, augmentation of religious funds, such as. It has been referred in Rathilal where the constitution bench basically said that where a devotees make contribution to be utilised in a particular manner and no other for the religion.