State must show ‘manifest’ transparency, fairness in issues of religious oppression, SC judge observes

Supreme Court judge, Justice Sanjay Kumar, observed that the State must show obvious transparency and fairness while dealing with issues involving religious oppression and secularism.

Though India’s brand of secularism means the State should remain neutral about all religions and faiths, the men and women who work the machinery of governance belong to different communities and religions, the judge said, indicating that the men and women who work the state machinery may ultimately owe allegiance to and work in the interest of their own particular faiths above all others.

“India has developed its own interpretation of secularism, wherein the State neither supports any religion nor penalises the profession and practice of any faith. This being the ideal, the State machinery must tailor its