The State owes no devotion to any particular religion, and the Constitution requires that the country’s religious majority should not be given preferential treatment, Supreme Court (SC) judge Justice BV Nagarathna said at a book launch in Bengaluru.
Justice Nagarathna reflected on the basic essential values in the Constitution and their relevance in today’s world. She was speaking at the launch of a book, ‘Constitutional Ideals: Development and Realisation Through Court-led Justice’, organised by DAKSH, a leading think tank and research institution focused on law and justice system reforms and access to justice. The book highlights the evolving constitutional jurisprudence on the concepts of individual and collective rights, and their deprivation and balancing by courts.
Justice Nagarathna said that “unlike in the West, secularism in India was never created out of struggle between the State and the Church”. “Perhaps it was rooted in India’s own past history and culture, and was a response to her pluralism.”
The goal of fundamental responsibilities is to develop “ideal citizenship”. “However, lack of integrity and possession of ill-gotten money has become the norm of the day.”
Justice Nagarathna, who also noted that disproportionate assets are rarely viewed as black marks in today’s times, said: “The essence of fundamental duties is to achieve ideal citizenship. It’s not just the relationship between the citizen and the state and duties of a citizen to the state, it also encompasses duties of one citizen to another. For this, we need to cherish and practise values of the Indian Constitution. Among the constitutional values, integrity is the highest. But alas! With the passing of every year, integrity is losing its value in our total value system. Bribery, corruption and flaunting of ill-gotten wealth has become the order of the day and has been entrenched in Indian society. Disproportionate assets possessed by certain persons, especially by those in public life are hardly thought of as blackmarks in our Indian society.”
Further, she also highlighted that the term “affordability” has lost its significance in today’s world. People used to think twice about spending money on pleasures or material comforts, but that is no longer the case.
“While we can see that the country has been grown economically and people are earning more money, disproportionate assets are a major source of concern. That is income from sources other than known ones. We can make economic and social growth as a country, claim to be good citizens, and have a magnificent Constitution. But what is it at the end if we lack integrity,” asked Justice Nagarathna
She also said that the family members of bribe-accepting public workers never reacted. “I am curious why no one from the family of public servants who are engaging in bribery and corruption is protesting!”
Given this, she believes it is time for citizens to pledge to refrain from engaging in such acts, regardless of the temptations on the other side.
While speaking on ‘liberty’, she stated that the Supreme Court initially did not follow the spirit of Chapter III, but this changed after a few decades.
While concluding her address, she said, “Fraternity will help deepen democratic values despite our religious, linguistic and other differences”.
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