Hijab Ban- Karnataka High Court Full Bench Hearing (Day 7)- LIVE UPDATES

AG says State relying on this statement from the judgment : Whilst we are dealing with this point it may not be out of place incidentally to strike a note of caution and Observe that in order that the practices in question should be treated as a part of religion they must be...

AG refers to Ajmer Dargah case AIR 1961 SC 1402 - this was a case where an Act taking away the rights of sufis from collections in Dargah was under challenge.

AG : The practice must be essential to religion.

CJ : That is the crux?

AG : That is the crux. There are some tests laid down.

AG : In the first judgment, the word used was "essentially religious" and when it came to Sabarimala it became "essential to religion". I will show four judgments, from Shirur Mutt to Sabarimala case.

AG points out that the Supreme Court has said in Shirur Mutt case that it was difficult to give a precise definition to "religion".

Justice Dixit : What you want to say unless conscience is taken over by an overt act, until then it is conscience, once it is an act it becomes religion.

AG agrees.

Justice Dixit : Our Constitution did not enact what Karl Marx has said, that "religion is the opium of the masses".

AG: There was a telling statement made by Dr Ambedkar in the assembly debates that let us keep the religious instruction outside educational institutions.

Justice Dixit : Secularism which the makers of our Constitution is not what akin to what American Constitution envisages. Our secularism oscillates between "sarva dharma sama bhava" and "dharma nirapekshatha". It is not a war between the Church and the State.

AG: They reached to consensus that we will control vide public order, morality and health.