New Delhi: Supreme Court Expressing serious concerns over allowing individuals to challenge religious practices, on Thursday said it would break all religious and constitutional courts as thousands of people would clog courts with PILs seeking annulment of these customs and norms based on their self-assessment of these practices. CJI Surya Kant, a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna, MM Sundresh, A Amanullah, Aravind Kumar, AG Masih, PB Varale, R Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi made the remarks. Senior lawyer Raju Ramachandran said since the Constitution focuses on protecting the fundamental rights of individuals, the Constitutional Court must step in if religious practices or customs infringe on the rights of individuals. Justice Nagaratna said: “If everyone is free to approach the Constitutional Court or challenge religious customs and customs before the Constitutional Court, what will happen to our civilization which is intrinsically linked to religion?” Justice Sandresh said: “In this situation, every religious and constitutional court will collapse because thousands of people with different views on religion and religious practices will come to the courts and clog the system. From an individual’s perspective, a religious custom or practice may be regressive, while to another it may be a fundamental religious practice. How do courts decide who is right? Should courts be bogged down in deciding religious matters? ” He clarified that he was not saying that a person who had been wronged because of his religious practice had no remedies. He/she can definitely file a lawsuit in a civil court. Amid the debate on fundamental rights and faith-based practices, Ramachandran firmly maintained his view that the fundamental rights of an individual cannot be infringed through religious practices. “We are a constitutional civilization and nothing can infringe upon fundamental rights. Any infringement will be subject to the right to approach the courts under Article 32 of the Constitution,” he said.
