The Leaflet
Comprehensive coverage, analysis, and breaking news on religion.
We review the arguments on the Sabarimala Reference last week that grappled with the question of just how much the State can interfere in the affairs of religious communities and whether ‘English’ legal concepts adequately captured Indian religious life.
Ajitesh Singh
Staff Writer
Far from being a political afterthought, India's secular character is deeply rooted in the freedom struggle, Constituent Assembly debates, and the Constitution's core guarantees of equality and religious freedom
The Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene in Samuel Kamalesan exposes how judicial deference and legislative silence together shape the operation of Article 33.
As courts move away from insulating personal laws, Assam’s new law brings long-standing tensions between personal law, gender justice, and fundamental rights back into sharp focus.
The petition had been filed barely three months after another Bench of the Supreme Court expressed doubts about the correctness of the 2014 Constitution Bench ruling.
The 7-judge bench decision did not truly resolve the legal dispute, instead pirouetting around its core, shadowboxing with half-arguments while leaving the heart of the matter suspended in mid-air for a 3-Judge Bench to factually determine.
The application seeks an extension citing the scale and complexity of the exercise involving thousands of properties.
The Supreme Court’s September interim judgement in the challenge to the Waqf Amendment Act is problematic on almost all counts – issue framing, adjudicatory reasoning, legal interpretation, and the ratio. More concerningly, in several parts, it is also guided by assumptions that lack basis, reading “lies” into the law.
In June, bulldozers razed down a Kali temple in Bhoomiheen camp in Delhi. Selective application of zoning laws, nuisance doctrines, environmental norms and master plans have enabled demolition of mazārs, dargāhs and wayside shrines of working class devotees - clipping away the last remnants of citizenship entitlements for the poor across India’s cities.