Gujarat Professor Urges Ban on Religious Rituals at State-Funded Universities
A Gujarat professor has called for a ban on all religious rituals on university campuses, citing the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati verdict on secularism.
A senior faculty member in Gujarat has called for a ban on all religious rituals on university campuses, arguing that state-funded institutions are constitutionally required to remain non-religious.
The professor anchored the demand in the Supreme Court's landmark 1973 judgment in the Kesavananda Bharati case, which held that secularism forms part of the basic structure of the Indian Constitution. On that basis, the faculty member contended that institutions supported by public funds cannot host or endorse religious observances of any kind.
The intervention touches on a long-running debate over the place of faith in publicly funded education, where the constitutional principle of secularism is weighed against the religious freedoms guaranteed to citizens. The Kesavananda Bharati ruling is frequently cited in such discussions because it established that certain features of the Constitution, including secularism, lie beyond the amending power of Parliament.
No further details of the professor's statement, or any official response from the university or state authorities, were immediately available.