Delhi High Court: In a PIL filed against the issuance of coins with religious symbols embossed on them, the Court has directed the Centre to file a detailed status report as to its policy of issuing commemorative coins with the figures of religious symbols embossed on them. Briefly stated, the facts are that the Government released coins of the denomination 5 and 10 with the figure of a Hindu Deity embossed on them, in the year 2010 and 2013. Following which the PIL was filed claiming that such symbols undermine the secular character of the Nation which is the basic feature of the Constitution. It was demanded that the coins should be withdrawn and directions should be issued for formulating a national policy prohibiting the depiction of figures and symbols of any religion on any tangible or intangible property of the State. Here, the Government claimed that the coins have been issued as commemorative coins as per the provisions of the Coinage Act, 2011. Such other coins have already been issued on different occasions with figures of other religions as well. The Court has asked the Government to define as to what is “secular”. It was also asked whether the Government was promoting all religions equally or is it turning a blind eye to all religions. While directing the Centre to issue a detailed status report on the said matter within three weeks the Court has posted the matter for further hearing on 23-04-2014. [Naifs Qazi v. Union of India, W.P.(C) 1777/2014, order passed on March 19, 2014]
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 10:58:51 +0000
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