‘India is a secular country’, SC junks plea to declare Thakur Anukulchandra as ‘Pramatma’

India is a secular country and everybody has a right to their religion, the Supreme Court said on Monday while dismissing a PIL seeking to declare late religious figure Sri Sri Thakur Anukul Chandra as ‘Paramatma’.

Declining to entertain the plea, the Supreme Court on Monday said the petition is “thoroughly misconceived” which deserves to be dismissed. A bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar said that India is a secular country and such prayers cannot be made by way of PILs. It, therefore, imposed costs of ₹1 lakh on the petitioner for the “misconceived” plea, reported Bar and Bench.

As the petitioner Upendra Nath Dalai started to read from his petition, the bench said, “Suno hum ye lecture sunne ke liye nahi aaye hain (Listen, we are not here to listen to your lecture). Is this a public interest litigation? Aisa kaise ho sakta hai? Jisko jo manna hai wo mane. Apni country me sabko religious adhikar hai. Hum kaise keh sakte hain ki particular sect ko hi maane.(How can this be possible? Everybody is free to follow his or her religion. How can we ask people to follow a particular religion).

“If you want you can consider him as ‘Paramatma’ (supreme being). Why enforce it on others?” the bench observed. The top court was hearing a plea filed by Dalai seeking to declare Chandra as ‘Paramatma’.

-INDIA NEWS STREAM