Live Law
2026-04-15 06:26:57
(a) Religion, though incapable of precise definition, must involve a cohesive commonality of beliefs and practices for a community of persons;
(b) Their beliefs, practices and customs can be reviewed, if at all, where absolutely necessary, only by applying the subjective test of the beliefs of the community itself and only to the extent as to whether the belief or practice is in fact a part of that religion;
(c) It cannot be reviewed or tested by external, supposedly objective tests imposed by society or by judges in an adjudicatory matrix;
(d) A large volume of rituals, ceremonial practices and other seemingly procedural practices would nevertheless be entitled to the full protection of Article 25, so long as they are held to be part of the religion concerned;
(e) Since Article 25 protects the common beliefs and practices of a community, it is not open to an individual member of that community, in the purported assertion of that individual’s supposed constitutional right, to dilute or destroy the Article 25 rights of the entire community.
