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Supreme Court Likely To Pronounce Order On The Ismail Faruqui Judgment
The Supreme Court is set to pronounce its order on Friday in relation to the reconsideration of the 1994 ruling in Ismail Faruqui Vs Union of India by a larger bench. The bench, comprising of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice Abdul Nazeer, had reserved the order on July 20 on a string of appeals against the 2010Ram Janmabhumi-Babri Masjid disputeverdict, givenby the Allahabad High Court.
The following questions were suggested by the senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan during the hearing, as reference, for the consideration of larger bench:
- Whether, considering the Supreme Court judgments in Shirur Mutt, Durgah Committee (1961) and VenkataramanaDevaru (1958), the question if a religious practice is an ‘essential practice’ can be decided by the ipse dixit of the court, without a detailed examination of the tenets of the concerned religion?
- Whether the test of ‘essential practice’ involves both ‘integrality’ and ‘essentiality’? (At a previous occasion, Dr. Dhawan had relied on the three-judge bench ruling in Sri AdiVisheshwara of Kashi Vishwanath Temple v. State of UP (1997), wherein the apex court had observed that to determine whether the particular matters of religion or practices or belief form an integral part of the religion, it is necessary to examine if the practices or matters are considered integral by the community itself and are not governed solely by the concept of essentiality.)
- Whether the protection provided under Article 25 extends to all beliefs and practices of a religion or it’s restricted to those of ‘particular significance’ to the religion?
- Whether the analysis of ‘comparative significance’ of religions can be deemed permissible under Articles 15, 25 and 26 read with Article 14?
