The Supreme Court on Friday referred the question of whether religious functions can be held in government-owned and public places, to a larger Bench..A Bench of Justices Rohinton Nariman and Indu Malhotra was hearing a petition filed by an organisation by the name of Jyoti Jagran Mandal, when this question was raised. The petitioner was represented by Advocates Fuzail Ayyubi and Isha Bhardwaj..The petitioner organisation had organised a ‘Mata ki Chowki’ at Chanchal Park in South Delhi for philanthropic purposes. The petitioner claims that this was organised in line with a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order passed in October 2017, which allowed pujas to be held in this park, provided other parks in the locality were not allotted for such functions..The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), however, denied permission to the petitioner to hold the event, which was scheduled on June 9 this year. Permission was denied on the grounds that the event was not a puja, and therefore the directions of the NGT order of October last year would not apply..The petitioner approached the NGT seeking clarification on what constituted the term ‘puja’, but the Tribunal allegedly disposed of the matter without considering the facts and merits of the case. Aggrieved by this, the petitioner approached the Supreme Court..When this petition came up for hearing before the Supreme Court, a bigger issue came to the fore. The Bench contemplated the larger question of whether any government-owned property and public spaces can be used to hold religious functions in a secular country like India..The Division Bench referred this issue to the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra for setting up of a larger Bench to decide on this question..Read the order below.
The Supreme Court on Friday referred the question of whether religious functions can be held in government-owned and public places, to a larger Bench..A Bench of Justices Rohinton Nariman and Indu Malhotra was hearing a petition filed by an organisation by the name of Jyoti Jagran Mandal, when this question was raised. The petitioner was represented by Advocates Fuzail Ayyubi and Isha Bhardwaj..The petitioner organisation had organised a ‘Mata ki Chowki’ at Chanchal Park in South Delhi for philanthropic purposes. The petitioner claims that this was organised in line with a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order passed in October 2017, which allowed pujas to be held in this park, provided other parks in the locality were not allotted for such functions..The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), however, denied permission to the petitioner to hold the event, which was scheduled on June 9 this year. Permission was denied on the grounds that the event was not a puja, and therefore the directions of the NGT order of October last year would not apply..The petitioner approached the NGT seeking clarification on what constituted the term ‘puja’, but the Tribunal allegedly disposed of the matter without considering the facts and merits of the case. Aggrieved by this, the petitioner approached the Supreme Court..When this petition came up for hearing before the Supreme Court, a bigger issue came to the fore. The Bench contemplated the larger question of whether any government-owned property and public spaces can be used to hold religious functions in a secular country like India..The Division Bench referred this issue to the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra for setting up of a larger Bench to decide on this question..Read the order below.
