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S.P. Mittal Etc. Etc vs Union Of India And Others

Supreme Court of India

S.P. Mittal Etc. Etc vs Union Of India And Others on 8 November, 1982

Equivalent citations: 1983 AIR, 1 1983 SCR (1) 729

Author: R Misra

Bench: Chandrachud, Y.V. ((Cj), Bhagwati, P.N., Reddy, O. Chinnappa (J), Eradi, V. Balakrishna (J), Misra, R.B. (J)

PETITIONER:

S.P. MITTAL ETC. ETC.

Vs.

RESPONDENT:

UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS

DATE OF JUDGMENT08/11/1982

BENCH:

MISRA, R.B. (J)

BENCH:

MISRA, R.B. (J)

CHANDRACHUD, Y.V. ((CJ)

BHAGWATI, P.N.

REDDY, O. CHINNAPPA (J)

ERADI, V. BALAKRISHNA (J)

CITATION:

1983 AIR 1 1983 SCR (1) 729

1983 SCC (1) 51 1982 SCALE (2)1001

CITATOR INFO :

RF 1984 SC 51 (8A)

R 1987 SC 748 (19)

RF 1992 SC1277 (22)

ACT:

Right to freedom of religion and to manage religious affairs-Constitution of India, 1950 Articles 25 and 26-Shri Aurobindo's teachings cannot be said to be of a religious nature Aurobindo Society and the Auroville township do not fall within the meaning of religious denomination so as to be violative of Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution.

Words & Phrases-'Religion' and 'Religious denomination' explained. Auroville (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1980 (Act LIX of 1980) Preamble-Parliamentary competency to enact the Act-

Whether inconsistent and in conflict with the provisions of the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961 (Act XXVI of 1961) Sections 22 & 23 containing in built self-contained provisions for dealing with the management of the registered societies-Constitution of India 1950 Article 245, Schedule VII, List I Entry 32-Functions of the Lists, Explained.

Auroville (Emergency Provisions) Act 1980 providing for taking over the management only of Auroville township and its activities for a limited period is not violative either

of Article 14, Articles 25 and 26 or Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution.

HEADNOTE:

Sri Aurobindo, one of the Indian sages and philosophers, after a brilliant academic and administrative career engaged himself for sometime in political activities and revolutionary literary efforts, but later on gave them up to concentrate himself with the life of mediation and integral yoga at Pondicherry, in Tamil Nadu. Madam M. Alfassa a French Lady, who came to be known as the Mother became a disciple of Sri Aurobindo. Very soon more and more disciples came to join him from various parts of India and abroad and thus the Aurobindo Ashram came into being. The disciples and devoted followers of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, with a view to propagate and practise the ideals and beliefs of Sri Aurobindo formed a Society called Sri Aurobindo Society in the year 1960, which at all material times was and is still a society duly registered under the provisions of the West Bengal Societies Registration 730 Act, 1961. This Society is completely distinct from Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. The Society was established and registered for the purpose of carrying out in and out side India the several objects stated in the memorandum of Society The management of the Society vested in its ExecutiveCommittee. Rules and regulations have been duly framed for the management of the Society and also for safe custody and protection of its assets, properties and funds.

Sri Aurobindo Society preaches and propagates the ideals and teachings of Sri Aurobindo, inter alia, through its numerous centres scattered throughout India by way of weekly meetings of its members. The Mother as the founder-president also conceived of aproject of setting up a cultural township known as'Auroville' where people of different countries are expected to engage in cultural, educational and scientific and other pursuits aiming at human unity. The Society has been a channel of funds for setting up the cultural township known as Auroville.

At the initiative of the Government of India, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation being of the opinion that the Auroville project would contribute to international understanding and promotion of peace sponsored the project by proposing a resolution to this effect at its General Conference in 1966. This resolution was unanimously adopted at this conference.By a further resolution passed in 1968 the UNESCO invited its member States and international non-governmental organisations to participate in the development of Auroville as an international cultural township to bring together the values of different cultures and civilisations in harmonious environment with integrated living standards, which corresponds to man's physical and spiritual needs. In 1970 UNESCO had directed its Director-General to take such steps as may be feasible, within the budgetary provisions to promote the development of Auroville as an important international cultural programme. Sri Aurobindo Society received large funds in the shape of grants from different organisations in India and abroad for development of that township.The assistance included contributions from the State Governments of the value of Rs. 66.50 lakhs and the Central Government of the value of Rs. 26.14 lakhs.

After the death of the Mother on 17th of November, 1973 a number of problems of varying nature affecting the smooth running of the project cropped up. The Government of India on receiving complaints about mismanagement of the project and misuse of funds by Sri Aurobindo Society set up a committee under the chairmanship of the Governor of Pondicherry with representatives of the Government of Tamil Nadu and of the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Central Government to looking into the matter. The Committee made a detailed scrutiny of the accounts of Sri Aurobindo Society relating to Auroville and found instances of serious irregularities in the management of the Society, misutilisation of its funds and their diversion to other purposes. Further, various other serious difficulties had arisen plaguing the Management of Auroville and rendering thereby any further growth of the township almost impossible. In the circumstances the taking over of the management of Auroville became imperative to ensure growth of the township in tune with its objectives.

Keeping in view the international character of the project and considering the government's involvement in actively sponsoring the project through UNESCO, the growth and management of the project had become the primary responsibility of the Government of India. The ideals of the project formed India's highest aspirations, which could not be allowed to be defeated or frustrated. Sri Aurobindo society had lost complete control over the situation and the members of the Auroville approached the Government of India to give protection against oppression and victimisation at the hands of the said Society. There were internal quarrels between the various factions of Sri Aurobindo Society. There have also been instances of law and order situation. Financial management of the projects has not been sound and several instances of mismanagement, diversion of funds have been revealed.A large sum of money was given by Sri Aurobindo Society to AURO construction-an agency whose status. is not at all defined, whose functions and capabilities for taking up large construction works also had not been made known. The Government in the circumstances could not be a silent spectator to the mismanagement of the project and internecine quarrels amongst its members, which if not checked could lead to the destruction of the project so nobly conceived. The Government, therefore, decided to issue a Presidential Ordinance. After the filing of the writ petition the ordinance has now been replaced by the pAuroville (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1980.

The constitutional validity of the Act has been challenged on our grounds:

(i) Parliament has no legislative competence to enact the impugned statute;

(ii) The impugned Act infringes Articles 25, 26, 29 and 30 of the Constitution;

(iii) The impugned Act is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution; and (iv) The Act was mala fide.Dismissing the petitions, the Court

HELD:

(Per Misra, J.)

1:1. The Parliament had the legislative competence to enact the Auroville (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1980 (Act LIX) of 1980. [770 D]

1:2. The subject matter of the impugned Act is not covered by Entry 32 of List II of the Seventh Schedule. Even if the subject matter of the impugned Act is not covered by any specific entry of List I or III of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution it would in any case be covered by the residuary entry 97 of List I. [770 C-D]

1:3. The function of the Lists in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution is not to confer powers.They merely demarcate the legislative fields. The Entries in the three Lists are only legislative heads or fields of legislation and the power to legislate is given to appropriate legislature by Articles 245 to 248 of the Constitution. [766 H, 767 A]

1:4. The Auroville Act even incidentally does not trench upon the field covered by the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961 as it is in no way related to Constitution, regulation and winding up of the Society. [770

R.C. Cooper v. Union of India [1970] 3 SCR 530 @ 563, applied.

Attorney General for Ontario v. Attorney General for the Dominion [1896] AC 348 @ 366-67; Union of India v. H.S.Dhillon [1972] 2 SCR 33 @ 45; Board of Trustees, Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbia College v. The State of Delhi and Others [1962] 1 Supp. SCR 156; Katra Education Society v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Others [1966] 3 SCR 328, referred to.

2:1. The words "religious denomination" in Article 26 of the Constitution must take their colour from the word 'religion' and if this be so, the expression "religious denomination" must also satisfy three conditions:

(i) It must be a collection of individuals who has a system of beliefs or doctrine which they regard as conducive to their spiritual well-being, that is, a common faith;

(ii) Common organisation: and

(iii)Designation by a distinctive name. [774 B-D]

2:2. The term 'religion' has been judicially considered in the Commissioner of Hindu Religious Endowments, Madras v.Sri Lakshmindra Thirtha Swamiyar of Sri Shriur Mutt [1954] SCR 1005 and the following propositions of law laid down therein have been consistently followed in later cases including The Dargah Committee, Ajmer and Another v. Syed Hussain Ali & Others [1962] 1 SCR 383 @ 410-11 :

(1) Religion means "a system of beliefs or doctrines which are regarded by those who profess that religion as conducive to their spiritual well being";

(2) A religion is not merely an opinion, doctrine or belief. It has its outward expression in acts as well;

(3) Religion need not be theistic;

(4) "Religious denomination" means a religious sect or body having a common faith and organisation and designated by a distinctive name;

(5) A law which takes away the rights of administration from the hands of a religious denomination altogether and vests in another authority would amount to violation of the right guaranteed under clause (d) of Article 26." [773

E-H, 774A]

Per Majority [Misra, J for himself, Y. V. Chandrachud, C.J., P. N. Bhagwati and V. Balakrishna Eradi, JJ.and Chinnappa Reddy, J. dissenting.]

2:3. On the basis of the materials the Memorandum of Association of the Society, the several applications made by the Society claiming exemption under s. 35 and s. 80 of the Income-tax Act, the repeated uttering of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother that the society and Auroville were not religious institutions and host of other documents there is no room for doubt that neither the Society nor Auroville constitute a religious denomination and the teachings of Sri Aurobindo only represented his philosophy and not a religion. [793 D-

Numerous Uttering by Sri Aurobindo or the Mother unmistakably show that the Ashram or Society or Auroville is not a religious institution. There can be no better proof than what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother themselves thought of their teachings and their institutions to find out whether the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and his Integral Yoga constitute a religion or a philosophy. The Uttering made from time to time by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother hardly leave any doubt about the nature of the Institution. It was on the basis that it was not a religious institution, that the Society collected funds from the Central Government, the Governments of States, other non-Governmental agencies. and from abroad. [792 B-D, 793 A]

Even assuming but not holding that the Society or the Auroville were a religious denomination, the impugned enactment is not hit by Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution. The impugned enactment does not curtail the freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion. Therefore, there is no question of the enactment being hit by Article 25. [793 E-F]

2:4. The impugned enactment does not stand in the way of the Society establishing and maintaining institutions for religious and charitable purposes, It also does not stand in the way of the Society to manage its affairs in matters of religion. [794 A-B]

2:5. Even assuming that the society or Auroville was a religious denomination, clause (b) of Art. 26 guarantees to a religious denomination a right to manage its own affairs in matters of religion. Besides the right to manage its own affairs in matters of religion, which is given by clause

(b), the next two clauses of Art.26 guarantee to a religious denomination the right to acquire and own property and to administer such property in accordance with law. The administration of its property by a religious denomination has thus been placed on a different footing from the right to manage its own affairs in the matters of religion. The latter is a fundamental right which no legislature can take away, whereas the former can be regulated by laws which the legislature can take away,

734

whereas the former can be regulated by laws which the legislature can validity imposed. It is clear, therefore, that question merely relating to a religions group or institution are not matters of religion to which clause of article applies.[800 H, 801 A-B]

2:6. The impugned Act had not taken away the right of management in matters of religion or a religious denomination, if the Society or Auroville is a religious denomination at all, rather it has taken away the right of management of the property of Auroville. Thus the impugned Act neither violates Article 25, nor Article 26 of the Constitution. [801 C-D]

The Commissioner of H. R. & C. E. Madras v. Lakshmindra Tirtha Swamiyar of Sri Sirur Mutt [1954] S.C.R. 1005; The Dargah Committee Ajmer and Another v. Syed Hussain Ali [1962] 1 S.C.R, 383; Tilkyat Shri Govindlalji Maharaj v.State of Rajasthan & others [1964] 1 S.C.R. 561; Sastri Yagnapurush Adri & Others v. Muldas Bhudardas Vysya & Another [1966] 3 S.C.R. 242; Divyadassan Rajendra Ramdassji & Another v. State of Andhra Pradesh [1970] 1 S.C.R. 103; Nalaw Ramalingayya v. The Commissioner of Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Hyderabad A.I,R. 1971 (AP) 320; T. Krishnan v. G.D.M. Committee A.I.R, 1978 Kerala 68; applied.

3. On an analysis of Articles 29 and 30 and the decided cases it is evident that the Auroville Act does not seek to curtail the right ofbany section of citizen to

conserve its own language, script or culture conferred by Article 29. The benefit of Art. 30(1) can be claimed by the community only on proving that it is a religious or

linguistic minority and that the institution was established by it.Since Auroville or the Society is not a religious denomination, Articles 29 and 30 would not be attached and,

therefore, the impugned Act cannot be held to be violative of Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution. [805 A-C] In re: The Kerala Education Bill [1959] SCR 995; Reverend Sidhaibhai Serbhai and Others v. State of Bombay and Another [1963] 3 SCR 837 @ 856;State of Kerala v. Mother Provincial [1971] 1 SCR 734; applied.

4. The Auroville Take over Act cannot be said to be violative of Article 14 of the Constitution, which action was taken after full consideration of various aspects of the problem, for the reasons namely, (i) it has not been pointed out which were the other institutions where similar situations were prevailing; and (ii) there is a uniqueness with this institution inasmuch as the Government is also involved. Even a single institution may be taken as a class. The situation prevailing in the Auroville had converted the dream of the Mother into a nightmare. There had arisen acute law and order situation in the Auroville, numerous cases were pending against various foreigners, the funds meant for the Auroville had been diverted towards other purposes and the atmosphere was getting out of hand. In the circumstances the Government intervened and promulgated the Ordinance and later on substituted it by the impugned enactment.

[814 B-D]

735

Budhan Choudhary v. The State of Bihar [1955] 1 SCR 1045: Shri Ramakrishna Dalmia v. Sri Justice S.R. Tandolkar and Others [1959] SCR 279; Raja Birakishore v. The State of Orissa [1964] 7 SCR 32, followed. Ram Prasad Narayan Sahi and Another v. State of Bihar and Others [1953] SCR 1129; distinguished.

5:1. Whether the remedies provided under the Societies Registration Act were sufficient to meet the exigencies of the situation is not for the Court to decide but it is for the Government and if the Government thought that the conditions prevailing in the Auroville and the Society can be ameliorated not by resorting to the provisions of the Societies Registration Act but by a special enactment, that is an area of the Government and not of the Court. [818 E-F]

5:2. It is not correct to say that the facts stated in The preamble of the Act was non est. Obviously there were serious irregularities in the management of the said society. There has been mis-utilisation of funds and their diversion to other purposes. This is evident from the audit report. There was no material change in the situation on the date of the impugned ordinance or the Act, rather the situation had grown from bad to worse and the sordid situation prevailing in the Auroville so pointed out by the parties fully justified the promulgation of the Ordinance and the passing the enactment. Of course, each party tried to apportion the blame the other. Who so ever be responsible, the fact remains that the prevailing situation in the Auroville was far from satisfactory. The amount donated for the construction of the cultural township Auroville and other institutions was to the tune of Rs. 3 crores. It was the responsibility of the Government to see that the amount was not misutilised and the management was properly carried out. On a perusal of the audit report, which is a voluminous one, all that can be said is that on the facts found by the audit committee, the report is rather a mild one. There seems to be serious irregularities in the

accounts. A substantial amount received by way of donations had not been properly spent, there being mis-utilisation and diversion of the funds. [819 B-F]

5:3. Even assuming that the facts brought to the notice of the legislature were wrong, it will not be open to the Court to hold that Act to be bad on that account. The Court would not do so even in case of a litigation which has become final on the ground that the facts or the evidence produced in the case were not correct. The Parliament had to apply its mind on the facts before it.

[819 F-H]

We can normally assume that the Government would certainly appoint a responsible person as an administrator especially when there is a heavy stake in which the Government of India is also involved in as much as at the instance of the Government the UNESCO gave financial support to the institution.

[820 F-G]

6. The contention that the report of the committee was tainted as Shri Kulkarni the Chairman and Secretary were parties, without any foundation. The allegation of the impugned Act being malafide is equally devoid of force.

736

Kiriti Joshi cannot be said to have his own axe to grind in the matter or was instrumental in getting the impugned Ordinance and the Act passed. Allegations about mala fides are more easily made than made out. Merely because he made a

complaint about the situation prevailing in the management of Auroville and the Society, it cannot be said that the impugned enactment was passed at his behest. [820 H, 821 B-

Per Chinnappa Reddy, J. (Dissenting)

1:1. Shri Aurobindo truly was a religious teacher and taught and was understood to have taught new religious doctrine and practice. Therefore, Aurobindoism, can certainly be classified if not as a new religion, as a new sect of Hinduism and the followers of Sri Aurobindo can be termed a religious denomination. Sri Aurobindo of course, disclaimed that he was founding a religion. No great religious teacher ever claimed that he was founding a new religion or a new school of religious thought. The question is not whether Sri Aurobindo refused to claim or denied that he was founding a new religion or a new school of religious thought but whether his disciples and the community thought so. There is no doubt that they did not only his disciples and followers, but religious leaders all the world over and of all faiths. Therefore, Aurobindo Society is a sect of a religious determination within the meaning of the expression in Article 26 of the Constitution. [754 G-H, 755 A-B, F-G]

1:2. The word 'religion' does not occur in the Preamble to the constitution, but the Preamble does promise to secure to its citizens "Liberty of thought, expression, belief faith and worship". The freedom of conscience and the Right to profess, propagate and practise religion guaranteed in Article 25 flows out of the idea so expressed in Preamble. Freedom of conscience is not to be separated from the Right

to profess, practise and propagate religion. They go together and together they form part of the Right to Freedom of Religion. It is clear from Article 25 that secular activity may be associated with Religion.though the guarantee of the article does not extend to such activity. Article 26 guarantees that every religious denomination or

any section thereof shall have the right, subject to public order, morality and health, to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes, to manage its own affairs in matters of religion, to own and acquire movable and immovable property and to administer such property in accordance with law. Several provisions of the constitution where the expression 'religion' and 'religious denomination' are used are either those which are concerned with equality and equal opportunity or those which are concerned with freedom of religion. [742 D, F, G-H, 743

A, C]

1:3. Reading Art. 25 in the background of the proclamation regarding Liberty in the Preamble to the constitution, it is clear that (i) the constitution views religion as comprising thought, expression, belief, faith or worship, as involving the conscience and as something which may be professed, practised and propagated and which is any man's attribute in the same manner as race, sex, language, residence etc: (ii) economic, financial, political or other secular activity may be associated with religious practice ofthough such activity is not covered by the guarantee of freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate, religion; and so Religion is a matter of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, a matter involving the conscience and a matter which may be professed, practised and propagated by anyone and which may even have some secular activity associated with it. [744 F-H, 745 A]

1:4. Religion undefined by the constitution, is incapable of precise judicia definition either. In the background of the provisions of the constitution and the light shed by judicial precedent, it can at best be said that religion is a matter of faith. It is a matter of belief and doctrine. It concerns the conscience i.e. the spirit of man. It must be capable of overt expressions in work and deed, such as worship or ritual. So religion is a matter of belief and doctrine concerning the human spirit expressed overtly in the form of ritual and worship. Some religions are easily identifiable as religious; some are easily identifiable as not religious. There are many in the penumbral region which instinctively appear to some as religion and to others as not religions. There is no formula of general application. There is no knife-edge test. Primarily, it is a question of the consciousness of the community, how does the fraternity or sodality (if it is permissible to use the word without confining it to Roman Catholic Groups) regard itself, how do others regard the fraternity or sodality. A host of other circumstances may have to be considered, such as, the origin and the history of the community, the rituals observed by the community, what the founder, if any, taught, what the founder was understood by his followers to have taught, etc. In origin, the founder may not have intended to found any religion at all. He may have merely protested against some rituals and observances, he may have disagreed with the interpretation of some earlier religious tenets. What he said, what he preached and what he taught, his protest, his distant, his disagreement might have developed into a religion in the course of time, even during his life-time. He may be against religion itself, yet, history and the perception of the community may make a religion out of what was not intended to be a religion and he may be hailed as the founder of a new religion. [750 B-G]

And, whatever the ordinary features of a religious denomination may be considered to be, all are not of equal importance and surely the common faith of the religious body is more important than the other features. [751 C] The Commissioner of HR and C.E., Madras v. Lakshmindra Tirtha Swamiyar of Sri Shirur Mutt [1954] S.C.R. 1005;

Ratilal Panachand Gandhi v. The State of Bombay [1954] S.C.R. 1055; Durgah Committee of Ajmer v. Sayed Hussain Ali

JUDGMENT:

Maharaj v. The State of Rajasthan and Others [1964] 1 S.C.R. 561; Raja Virakishore v. State of Orissa [1964] 7 S.C.R. 32; Sasti Yagnapurushadji and Others v. Muldas Bhudardas Vaisnya and Another [1966] 3 S.C.R. 242; referred to.

1:5. Judicial definitions are not statutory definitions; they are mere explanations, every word of which is not to be weighed in golden scales. Law has a tendency to harden with the passage of time and judicial pronouncements are made to assume the form of statutory pronouncements. So soon as a word or expression occurring in the statute is judicially defined, the tendency is to try to interpret the language employed by the judges in the judicial definition. That is wrong. Always words and expressions to be interpreted are those employed in the statute and not those used by judges for felicitous explanation, Judicial definition is explanatory and not definitive. [751 C-E] 1:6. Religious denomination has not to owe allegiance to any parent religion. The entire following of a religion may be no more than the religious denomination. This may particularly be so in the case of small religious groups or 'developing' religions, that is, religions in the formative stage. So Aurobindoism can be termed as a religious denomination. The world and India treated and respected Shri Aurobindo as a religious teacher and the founder of a new religion. [751 E-G] 2:1. Auroville (Emergency Provisions) Act. 1980 did not take away or purport to take away the management of the Shri Aurobindo Society. Parliament concerned itself with the management of Auroville only and with no other activity of the Shri Aurobindo Society, including its affairs in matters of religion'. In fact, section 4(2) makes it explicit that, except for matters relating to the management of Auroville, the provisions of the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961, under which the Society was registered, shall continue to apply to the Society in the same manner as before. [755 G-H, 757 C-D] 2:2. The management of the International, cultural township of Auroville cannot be said to be a matter of religion. Auroville is a township and not a place of worship. It is a township dedicated, not to the practice and the propagation of any religious doctrine but to promote international understanding and world peace, surely, a secular and not a religious activity. The highest that can be said in favour of Auroville being a religious institution or its management being a religious matter, is that it was conceived by the Mother and shaped and sculpted by Shri Aurobindo's disciples and followers in the pursuit of one of the ideas and ideals of Shri Aurobindo, a great religious teacher. On the other hand, the ideal itself, that is, the promotion of international understanding and world peace is by no means a religious ideal and it was because of the nature of the ideal that the Government of India and the UNESCO adopted the project. Shri Aurobindo himself was not a mere religious teacher. He was a visionary, a humanist and a nationalist who had blossomed into an internationalist. Therefore, Auroville, though the child of the Mother and though nurtured by the devotees of Shri Aurobindo, has an individuality, distinctly secular of its own. Hence, Auroville (Emergency Provisions) Act which provides for the taking over the management of Auroville for a limited period does not offend the rights guaranteed by Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution. [757 E-H, 758 C] 2:3. The rights guaranteed by Articles 29 and 30 cannot be said to have been infringed by the Auroville Emergency provisions Act. No section of citizens having a culture and no religious minority has been denied the right to establish and administer an educational institution of its choice. [758 D-E] & ORIGINAL JURISDICTION: Writ Petition No. 5879 of 1980. (Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India) AND Writ Petition No. 5877 of 1980.

(Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India) AND Transferred Case No. 29 of 1981.

(Calcutta High Court Writ Petition No. 11508 of 1981) With Civil Appeal No. 2819 of 1980.

(Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated 21st November, 1980 of the Division Bench of the High Court of Calcutta in F.M.A.T. No. 3408 of 1980) Soli J. Sorabji, K.K. Venugopal, S. Rangarajan, S. Balakrishnan, M.K.D. Namboodiry, P. Radhakrishnan, N.A. Subrahmaniam, C.S. Vaidyanathan, M.N. Krishna Mani and Vinnet Kumar for the Petitioners and Appellant.

L.N. Sinha, Attorney General, K. Parasaran, Solicitor General, M.K. Banerji, Additional Solicitor General, Govind Swaminadhan, for R. 3, N. Nettar and Miss A. Subhashini for Respondents Nos. 1 to 4.

T.S. Krishnamoorthy Iyer and Raju Ramchandran for Respondent No. 5.

F.S. Nariman, Anil B. Divan, P.H. Parekh, Mrs. Vineeta Sengupta, Gautam Philip and Sanjeev Agarwal for Respondent Nos. 6 to 240 in WPs. & CA.

P.P. Rao, P.C. Kapur and R. Venkataramani for interveners 1-88.

FOR APPLICANT/INTERVENERS

A.B. Patel: - R.B. Datar

Indra Sen: - N.M. Kshatriya,

R.K. Habbu: - B.R. Aggarwala,

Catholic Bishop Con- - P.A. Francis, J.B. Dadachanji

ference of India: and D.N. Mishra

The following Judgments were delivered

CHINNAPPA REDDY, J. I have the good fortune of having before me the scholarly judgment of my brother Misra J., I agree with my brother Misra, J that the Writ Petitions must fail. With much that he has said, also, I agree. But with a little, to my own lasting regret, I do not agree. It is, therefore, proper for me to explain the points of my disagreement.

Quite a considerable part of the hearing of the petitions was devoted to a debate on the question, what is Religion ? Religion: Everyone has a religion, or at least, a view or a window on religion, be he a bigot or simple believer, philosopher or pedestrian, atheist or agnostic. Religion, like 'democracy' and 'equality' is an elusive expression, which everyone understands according to his pre- conceptions. What is religion to some is pure dogma to others and what is religion to others is pure superstition to some others. Karl Marx in his contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law described religion as the 'Opium of the people'. He said further "Basically religion is a very convenient sanctuary for bourgeois thought to flee to in times of stress. Bertrand Russell, in his essay 'Why I am not Christian', said, "Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear." It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother, who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing-fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and, therefore, it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. As a worshipper at the altar of peace, I find it difficult to reconcile myself to religion, which throughout the ages, has justified war calling it a Dharma Uddha, a Jehad or a Crusade. I believe that by getting mixed up with religion, ethics has lost 'much of its point, much of its purpose and a major portion of its spontaneity'. I apprehend I share the views of those who have neither faith nor belief in religion and who consider religion as entirely unscientific and irrational. Chanting of prayer appears to me to be mere jingoism and observance of ritual, plain superstition. But my views about religion. my prejudices and my predilections, if they be such, are entirely irrelevant. So are the views of the credulous, the fanatic, the bigot and the zealot. So also the views of the faithful, the devout, the Acharya, the Moulvi, the Padre and the Bhikshu each of whom may claim his as the only true or revealed religion. For our present purpose, we are concerned with what the people of the Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic of India, who have given each of its citizens Freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practise and propagate religion and who have given every religious denomination the right to freely manage its religious affairs, mean by the expressions religion' and 'religious denomination'. We are concerned with what these expressions are designed to mean in Arts. 25 and 26 of the Constitution. Any Freedom or Right involving the conscience must naturally receive a wide interpretation and the expression 'religion' and 'religious denomination' must therefore, be interpreted in no narrow, stifling sense but is a liberal, expansive way.

Etymology is of no avail. Religion is derived from 'religare' which means "to bind". Etymologically, therefore, every bond between two people is a religion, but that is not true. To say so is only to indulge in etymological deception. Quite obviously, religion is much more than a mere bond uniting people.

Quite obviously, again, religion is not to be confined to the traditional, established, well-known or popular religions like Hinduism, Mahomedanism, Buddhism and Christianity. There may be and, indeed, there are, in this vast country, several religions, less known or even unknown except in the remote corners or in the small pockets of the land where they may be practised. A religion may not be wide-spread. It may have little following. It may not even have a name, as indeed most tribal religions do not have. We may only describe them by adding the suffix 'ism' to the name of the founder-teacher, the tribe, the area or the deity. The nomenclature is not of the essence. Again, a band of persons, large or small, may not be said to be adherents of a religion merely because they share some common beliefs and common interests and practise common rites and ceremonies; nor can pietistic recitation and solemn ritual combine to produce religion, on that account only. Secret societies dedicated to secular tasks and indulging in queer oaths and observances, guilds and groups of persons who meet but to dine and wine but who subject their members to extravagant initiation ceremonies, village and tribal sorcerers and coven of witches who chant rant and dance in the most weird way possible are all far removed from religion. They appear to lack the 'spiritual connection'. But, all this is unsatisfactory. We are not arriving at any definition of religion. We are only making peripheral journeys and not getting any nearer to the core of the problem presented to us.

Let us examine the relevant provisions of the Constitution for such light as they may throw on the meaning of the expressions 'religion and religious denomination'. They are not defined. The word 'religion' does not occur in the Preamble to the Constitution, but the Preamble does promise to secure to its citizens "Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship". The Freedom of conscience and the Right to profess, propagate and practice religion,flow of the idea so expressed in the Preamble. In Part-III of the Constitution, under the head "Right to Freedom of Religion", there are four Articles. Art25(i) guarantees to all persons, subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of Part-III of the Constitution, freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion. Freedom of conscience is not to be separated from the Right to profess, practice and propagate religion. They go together and together they form part of the Right to Freedom of Religion. Clause (2) of Art. 25, however, stipulates that the freedom and the right guaranteed by cl. (1) shall not prevent the State from making any law regulating or restricting, any economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice. Or to provide for social welfare and reform or to throw open Hindu religious institutions of a public character to all classes and sections of Hindus. So, the Article makes it clear that secular activity may be associated with Religion, though the guarantee of the article does not extend to such activity, Art. 26 guarantees that every religious denomination or any section thereof shall have the right, subject to public order, morality and health, to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes, to manage its own affairs in matters of religion, to own and acquire movable and immovable property and to administer such property in accordance with law.Art. 27 prohibits compulsion for payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion. Art. 28 bars religious instruction in any institution wholly maintained out of State funds and prevents compulsion to attend any religious instruction or religious worship in educational institutions recognised by the State or receiving aid out of State funds.

Apart from Articles 25 to 28, the word 'religion' occurs in Arts. 15(1), 15(2), 16(2), 16(5), 23(2), 29(2) and 30 of the Constitution.

Art. 15(1) prescribes that the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them. Art. 15(2) provides, in particular, that no citizen shall, on ground only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subject to any disability, liability restriction or condition with regard to access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment; or the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of State funds or dedicated to the use of the general public.

Art.16(2) guarantees that no citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of any employment or office under the State. Art. 16(5) exempts from the right guaranteed under Art. 16 the operation of any law which provides that the incumbent of an office in connection with the affairs of any religious or denominational institution or any member of the governing body thereof shall be a person professing a particular religion or belonging to a particular denomination.

Art. 23(2), while enabling the State to impose compulsory service for public purposes, prohibits the State from making any discrimination on grounds only of religion, race, caste or class or any of them.

Art. 29(2) provides that no citizen shall be denied admission to any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.

Art. 30(1) guarantees to all minorities, whether based on religion or language the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. Art. 30(2) further provides that the State shall not, in granting aid to educational institutions, discriminate against any educational institutions on the ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on religion or language.

It is readily seen that the several provisions of the Constitution where the expressions 'religion' and 'religious denomination' are used are either those which are concerned with equality and equal opportunity or those which are concerned with freedom of religion. Art. 15(1), Art. 16(2), Art. 23(2), Art. 29(2) are the several equality and equal opportunity clauses of the Constitution which bar discrimination on the ground of religion, and they place religion in equation with race, caste, sex, place of birth, residence and language for the purposes of the various aspects of equality dealt with by them. Art. 30 recognises the existence of minority groups based on religion along with minority groups based on language. Arts. 25 to 28 deal with the Right to Freedom of Religion which, as we said earlier is traceable to the idea of "Liberty of Thought, Expression, Belief, Faith and Worship" in the Preamble to the Constitution. Art. 25 guarantees freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion, but saves laws regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice. Reading Art. 25 in the background of the proclamation regarding Liberty in the Preamble to the Constitution, we may safely conclude that the Constitution views religion, as comprising thought, expression, belief, faith or worship, as involving the conscience and as something which may be professed, practised and propagated and which is any man's attribute in the same manner as race, sex language, residence etc. We also see that economic, financial, political or other secular activity may be associated with religious practice though such activity is not covered by the guarantee of freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion. So, the Constitution considers Religion as a matter of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, a matter involving the conscience and a matter which may be professed, practised and propagated by anyone and which may even have some secular activity associated with it. We have already said that any Freedom or Right involving the conscience must naturally receive a wide interpretation and the expressions 'Religion' and 'Religious Denomination' must, therefore, be interpreted in no narrow, stifling sense but in a liberal, expansive way.

How has the Court looked at the expression 'religion and 'religious denomination' and how has the Court attempted to define them ? We begin with the well-known Shirur Mutt case where Mukherjea J, speaking for himself and six of his colleagues, examined the question in some detail and, of course, with great erudition. We must first notice that the Court, there, was considering the question of the vires of the Madras Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act 1951 which was sought to be made applicable to the institution known as Shirur Mutt, one of the eight Mutts situated at Udipi and reputed to have been founded by Shri Madhwa Charya, the renowned exponent of 'dualistic theism' in the Hindu Religion. The trustees and the beneficiaries of the Mutt, it was claimed and established, were the followers of Shri Madhwa Charya. The question arose whether the spiritual fraternity constituted by the followers of Shri Madhwa Charya could be said to be a 'religious denomination' within the meaning of Art. 26, entitling them to manage their own affairs in 'matters of religion'. The Court noticed that while cl. (b) of Art. 26 guaranteed to a religious denomination the right to manage its own affairs in matters of religion, other clauses of the Article dealt with the right of a religious denomination to acquire and own property and to administer such property in accordance with law. The administration of its property by a religious denomination having thus been placed on a different footing from the right to manage its own affairs in matters of religion, the Court said:

"the latter is a Fundamental Right which no legislature can take away, whereas the former can be regulated by laws which the legislature can validly impose. It is clear, therefore, that questions merely relating to administration of properties belonging to a religious group or institution are not matters of religion to which clause (b) of the Article applies."

Mukherjea, J, then proceeded to consider what were matters of religion ? He noticed that 'religion' was a term which was hardly susceptible to any rigid definition. He rejected the definition given in Davis v. Benson as neither precise nor adequate and went on to say, "Religion is certainly a matter of faith with individuals or communities and it is not necessarily theistic. There are well known religions in India like Buddhism and Jainism which do not believe in God or in any Intelligent First Cause. A religion undoubtedly has its basis in a system of beliefs or doctrines which are regarded by those who profess that religion as conducive to their spiritual well being, but it would not be correct to say that religion is nothing else but a doctrine or belief. A religion may not only lay down a code of ethical rules for its followers to accept, it might prescribe rituals and observances, ceremonies and modes of worship which are regarded as integral parts of religion, and these forms and dress." Mukherjea,J., accepted the following observations of Latham, CJ in Vide Adelaide Company v. The Commonwealth(1), as fully applicable to the protection of religion as guaranteed by the Indian Constitution:

"It is sometimes suggested in discussions on the subject of freedom of religion that, though the civil Government should not interfere with religious opinions, it nevertheless may deal as it pleases with any acts which are done in pursuance of religious belief without infringing the principle of freedom of religion. It appears to me to be difficult to maintain this distinction as relevant to the interpretation of section 116. The section refers in express terms to the exercise of religion, and, therefore, it is intended to protect from the operation of any Commonwealth laws acts which are done in the exercise of religion. Thus the section goes far beyond protecting liberty of opinion. It also protects acts done in pursuit of religious belief as part of religion."

Mukherjea, J., thereafter, pointed out that freedom of religion under the Indian Constitution also was not confined to religious beliefs only, it extended to religious practices as well subject to the restrictions which the Constitution itself had laid down. Under Art. 26(b) he said, a religious denomination or organisation enjoyed complete autonomy in the matter of deciding as to what rites and ceremonies were essential according to the tenets of their religion they held and no outside authority had any jurisdiction to interfere with their decision in such matters. But, he said, the scale of expenses to be incurred in connection with the religious observances would be a matter of administration of property belonging to the religious denomination and to be controlled by secular authorities in accordance with any law laid down by a competent legislature. He added, "It should be noticed, however, that under Art. 26

(d), it is the Fundamental Right of a religious denomination or its representative to administer its properties in accordance with the law; and the law, therefore, must leave the right of administration to the religious denomination itself, subject to such restrictions and regulations as it might choose to impose a law which takes away the right of administration from the hands of a religious denomination altogether and vests it in any other authority, would amount to a violation of the right guaranteed under cl. D of Art. 26".

Mukherjea, J also considered the question whether the followers of Madhwacharya could be considered a religious denomination and whether Sivalli Brahmins constituted a section of that religious denomination. The meaning of the word denomination was culled out from the Oxford Dictionary where it has been defined to mean 'a collection of individuals classed together under the same name. a religious sect or body having a common faith and organisation and designated by a distinctive name". Reference was then made to "a galaxy of religious teachers and philosophers who founded the different sects and sub- sects of the Hindu religion that we find in India at the present day". It was emphatically stated that each one of such sects or sub-sects could certainly be called a religious denomination as it was designated by a distinctive name-in many cases it was the name of the founder-and had a common faith and common spiritual organisation. It was observed," the followers of Ramanuja, who are known by the name of Shri Vaishnobas, undoubtedly constitute a religious denomination; and so do the followers of Madhwacharya and other religious teachers. It is a fact well-established by tradition that the eight Udipi Maths were founded by Madhwacharya himself and the trustees and the beneficiaries of these Maths profess to be followers of that teacher. The High Court has found that the Math in question is in charge of Sivalli Brahmins who constitute a section of the followers of Madhwacharya. As Art. 26 contemplates not merely a religious denomination, but also a section thereof, the Math or the spiritual fraternity represented by it can legitimately come within the purview of this article."

So, in the Shirur Mutt case, Mukherjea J expressed difficulty in defining the term 'religion' with exactitude, but explained it as something founded upon beliefs or doctrines, regarded by those professing the religion as conductive to their spiritual well-being and attended by practices and observances viewed by the religious community as integral to the religion. Mukherjea J, however, found less difficulty in defining 'religious denomination' in the same terms as in the Oxford Dictionary.

Ratilal Panachand Gandhi v. The State of Bombay and Ors.(1) was decided by five of the Learned Judges who constituted the Bench which decided the Shirur Mutt case. What was said in the Shirur Mutt was reiterated and it was again emphasised that religion was not merely an opinion, doctrine or belief and that it had its outward expression in acts as well. The following observations of Davar J, in Jamshedjee v. Sunnabal(2) were approved: "If this is the belief of the community, and it is proved undoubtedly to be the belief of the Zoroastrian community,-a secular judge is bound to accept that belief-it is not for him to sit in judgment on that belief, he is not right to interfere with the conscience of a donor who makes a gift in favour of what he believes to be the advancement of his religion and the welfare of his community or mankind". I have stated almost at the outset that judges' faith or lack of faith in religion is irrelevant in deciding what are matters of religion.

In the Durgah Committee Ajmer v. Syed Hussain Ali & others(3) the Court reiterated the position that the freedom guaranteed by Art. 25(1) was not only the right to entertain such religious beliefs as my appeal to his conscience but also afforded him the right to exhibit his belief in his conduct by such outward acts as may appear to him proper in order to spread his ideas for the benefit of others. A note of caution was, however, struck and it was said that practices in order to qualify as matters of religion should be regarded by the said religion as its essential and integral part. Otherwise, it was pointed out, even purely secular practices which were not an essential or an integral part of religion were apt to be clothed with a religious form and stake a claim for treatment as religious practices. Mukherjea J's definition of 'religious denomination' in the Shirur Mutt case was also accepted and the case was permitted to be argued on the broad and general ground that the Chishtia Soofies constituted either a religious denomination or a section of a religious denomination.

In Tilkayat Shri Govindlalji Maharaj v. The State of Rajasthan and Ors.(1) the question was whether the famous Nath Dwara Temple was a public temple? It was held that it was a public temple. It was assumed that the followers of Vallabha constituted a religious denomination.

In Raja Virakishore v. State of Orissa(2)-one of the arguments sought to be advanced before the Supreme Court was that the worshippers of Lord Jagan Nath constituted a religious denomination and that the Shri Jagan Nath Temple Act, which took away the right of management from the denomination, contravened the Fundamental Right guaranteed by Art. 26(d) of the Constitution. The answer of the State was that the temple did not pertain to any particular sect, cult or creed of Hindus, but was a public temple above all sects, cults and creeds and, therefore, it was not the temple of any particular denomination The Court however, did not permit the worshippers to raise the argument as the state of pleadings were found to be defective.

In Sasti Yagnapurushad ji and Ors. v. Muldas Bhudardas Vaishya and Anr.(1) the question arose whether the Swaminarayan sect followed a religion distinct and separate from the Hindu religion and whether, consequently, the temple belonging to the sect was outside the ambit of Bombay Hindu Places of Public Worships (Entry Authorisation) Act ? Gajendragadkar, CJ, on an exhaustive consideration of various Hindu Texts and the texts and history of the Swaminarayan sect, came to the conclusion that the Swaminarayan sect was not a religion, distinct and separate from the Hindu Religion.

It is obvious that religion, undefined by the Constitution, is incapable of precise judicial definition either. In the background of the provisions of the Constitution and the light shed by judicial precedent, we may say religion is a matter of faith. It is a matter of belief and doctrine. It concerns the conscience i.e. the spirit of man. It must be capable of overt expression in word and deed, such as, worship or ritual. So, religion is a matter of belief and doctrine, concerning the human spirit, expressed overtly in the form of ritual and worship. Some religions are easily identifiable as religions, some are easily identifiable as not religions. There are many in the penumbral region which instinctively appear to some as religion and to others as not religions. There is no formula for general application. There is no knife-edge test. Primarily, it is a question of the consciousness of the community, how does the fraternity or sodality (if it is permissible to use the word without confining it to Roman Catholic groups) regard itself, how do others regard the fraternity or sodality. A host of other circumstances may have to be considered, such as, the origin and the history of the community, the beliefs and the doctrines professed by the community, the rituals observed by the community, what the founder, if any, taught, what the founder was understood by his followers to have taught, etc. In origin, the founder may not have intended to found any religion at all. He may have merely protested against some rituals and observances; he may have disagreed with the interpretation of some earlier religious tenets. What he said, what he preached and what he taught, his protest, his dissent, his disagreement might have developed into a religion in the course of time, even during his life-time. He may be against religion itself, yet, history and the perception of the community may make a religion out of what was not intended to be a religion and he may be hailed as the founder of a new religion. There are the obvious examples of Buddhism and Jainism and for that matter Christianity itself. Neither Buddha or Mahavira, nor Christ ever thought of founding a new religion, yet three great religions bear their names.

If the word 'religion' is once explained, though with some difficulty, the expression 'religious denomination' may be defied with less difficulty. As we mentioned earlier Mukherjea J, borrowed the meaning of the word denomination from the Oxford Dictionary and adopted it to define religious denomination as "a collection of individuals classed together under the same name, a religious sect or body having a common faith and organisation and designated by a distinctive name". The followers of Ramanuja, the followers of Madhwacharya, the followers of Vallabha, the Chishti Sufis have been found or assumed by the Court to be religious denominations. It will be noticed that these sects possessed no distinctive name except that of their founder- teacher and had no special organisation except a vague, loose-un-knit one. The really distinctive feature about each one of these sects was a shared belief in the tenets taught by the teacher-founder. We take care to mention here that whatever the ordinary features of a religious denomination may be considered to be, all are not of equal importance and surely the common faith of the religious body is more important than the other features. It is, perhaps, necessary to say that judicial definitions are not statutory definitions, they are mere explanations, every word of which is not to be weighed in golden scales. Law has a tendency to harden with the passage of time and judicial pronouncements are made to assume the form of statutory pronouncements. So as soon as a word or expression occurs in the statute is judicially defined, the tendency is to try to interpret the language employed by the judges in the judicial definition as if it has been transformed into a statutory definition. That is wrong. Always, words and expressions to be interpreted are those employed in the statute and not those used by judges for felicitous explanation. Judicial definition, we repeat, is explanatory and not definitive. One remark requires to be added here. Religious denomination has not to owe allegiance to any parent religion. The entire following of a religion may be no more than the religious denomination. This may particularly be so in the case of small religious groups or `developing' religions, that is, religions in the formative stage.

We may now consider whether Aurobindoism-if one may be excused for using the word `Aurobindoism' to describe what Shri Aurobindo taught and practised and what he was understood by his followers to have taught and practised-was a religion and whether the followers of Shri Aurobindo could be called a religious denomination.

Shri Aurobindo was a poet, a savant, a philosopher and a mystic. Was he or was he not a religious teacher ?

The Encyclopaedia Britannica (1978 Edition) describes him as "seer, poet and Indian nationalist who originated the philosophy of cosmic salvation through spiritual evolution, a divine existence that will appear through the development of the "agnostic man" to usher in a transcendent spiritual age in which man and the universe are destined to become divine". The Encyclopaedia goes on to say, "he devoted himself for the rest of his life solely to the development of his unique philosophy. There (at Pondicherry) he founded an ashrama (retreat) as an international cultural centre for spiritual development, attracting students from all over the world. The only requirement for entrance was a sincere wish to develop spiritually."

"According to Aurobindo's theory of cosmic salvation, the paths to union with Brahman are two-way streets, or channels, Enlightenment comes to man from above, while the spiritual mind (supermind) of man strives through logic illumination to reach up-ward from below. When these two forces blend in an individual, an agnostic man is created. This logic illumination transcends both reason and intuition and eventually leads to the freeing of the individual from the bonds of individuality and, by extension all mankind will eventually achieve mukti (liberation)".

"Thus, Aurobindo created a dialectic mode of salvation not only for the individual but for all mankind. Energy of sachidananda ("existence, thought, joy") comes down from Brahman (thesis) to meet energy from the supermind of man striving upward toward spirituality (antithesis) and melds in man to create a new spiritual superman (synthesis). From these evolved divine beings, a divine universe also evolved."

Under the head `History of Hinduism'. Encyclopaedia Britannica again refers to Aurobindo and says :

"Another modern teacher whose doctrines have had some influence outside India was Sri Aurobindo, who began his career as a revolutionary. He withdrew from politics, however, and settled in Pondicherry, then a French possession. There he established an ashram (a retreat) and achieved a high reputation as a sage. His followers looked on him as the first incarnate manifestation of super-beings whose evolution he prophesied, and apparently he did not discourage this belief. After his death, the leadership of the Aurobindo Ashram was taken over by "the Mother", Mme Mira Richard, a French-woman who had been one of his leading disciples."

The Encyclopaedia Britannica refers to Aurobindo again under the head `Idealism' and says :

"Aurobindo, reinterpreting the Indian Idealistic heritage in the light of his own Western education, rejected the maya doctrine of illusion, replacing it with the concept of evolution, arguing that the "illumination of individuals will lead to the emergence of a divine community". Aurobindo founded the influential Pondicherry Ashram, a religious and philosophical community, and headed it until his death."

The Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (1972 Edition) says, "Shri Aurobindo was an Indian metaphysician and founder of new religious movement with head-quarters at Pondicherry-The religious movement associated with him has increased its following in India, and has made some converts in the West.........God must `descent' into human experience. This illumination of individuals will lead to the emergence of a divinised community...............Aurobindo produced a synthesis between older Indian religious ideas and the world affirming attitudes of Christian theism."

The Dictionary of Comparative Religion says of Aurobindo :

"According to Aurobindo, there is a progressive evolution of the divine being through matter to higher spiritual forms, and the Aurobindo movement is held to represent vanguard of this evolutionary process in our own times. Aurobindo practised and taught an `integral yoga' in which meditative and spiritual exercises are integrated with physical, cultural and intellectual pursuits."

Frederic Spiegelberg, in his book `Living Religions of the World' refers to Shri Aurobindo :

"We pass beyond specific religions to a synthetic vision of the religious impulse itself, a vision designed to embrace all previous and future history all previous and future paths. Shri Aurobindo is a man worshipped by hundreds of thousands and respected by millions............In his retreat at Pondicherry he is less the philosopher of Hinduism than the philosopher of religion in general, the voice of that which comparative religion leaves undisputed."

On the topic Religion, the Gazetteer of India, published by the Govt. of India, has this to say :

"Shri Aurobindo gave new interpretations of the vedas and The Vedanta, and in his Essays on the Gita, he expounded what he called "the integral view of life". His great work, the Life Divine, is a summing up of his philosophy of "the Descent of the Divine into Matter". The importance of Sri Aurobindo's mission lies in his attempt to explain the true methods of Yoga."

It is clear from these extracts that the world and India treated and respected Shri Aurobindo as a religious teacher and the founder of a new religious movement whose principal thesis was the evolution or transformation of humanity into divinity through the practice of Integral Yoga. One may or may not accept Shri Aurobindo's thesis or teaching, but, without doubt, it was unique ; without doubt, it was novel; without doubt, it had never been so taught before. Shri Aurobindo first conceived the theory of Ascent and Descent, involution and evolution. He was the first expositor of the Integral Yoga. He expressly professed to depart from the Yoga of the Gita and dissented from the Maya Vada. Pedestrian minds like ours may not understand the niceties of the metaphysical exercises involved. We do not desire to enter into any polemics over Shri Aurobindo's teachings as it is not within the judicial province to do so except to the limited extent of finding out whether his teachings have the necessary spiritual content to qualify as religious doctrine and how his followers understood those teachings. So, we refrain from quoting Shri Aurobindo. But this fact stands out prominently that whatever else he was, he truly was a religious teacher and taught and was understood to have taught new religious doctrine and practice. I fail to see why `Aurobindoism' cannot be classified, if not as a new religion, as a new sect of Hinduism and why the followers of Shri Aurobindo cannot be termed a religious denomination.

Shri Aurobindo, of course, disclaimed that he was founding a religion. No great religious teacher ever claimed that he was founding a new religion or a new school of religious thought. The question is not whether Shri Aurobindo refused to claim or denied that he was founding a new religion or a new school of religious thought but whether his disciples and the community thought so. There is no doubt that they did, not only his disciples and followers, but religious leaders all the world over and of all faiths.

If the followers of Shri Aurobindo constitute a `religious denomination', as, to my mind, they undoubtedly do, the members of Shri Aurobindo Society are certainly a distinct and identifiable section of the `religious denomination'. The members of the society are followers and disciples of Shri Aurobindo. The society was formed to preach and propagate the beliefs and ideals of Shri Aurobindo. The primary object of the society was "To make known to the members of the public in general the aims and ideals of Shri Aurobindo and the Mother, their system of Integral Yoga and to work for its fulfilment in all possible ways and for the attainment of a spiritualised society as envisaged by Shri Aurobindo." It is nobody's case that this is not the principal object of the society or that it is only a facade for other activities. However, it was argued that the Society had represented itself as, `a non- political, non-religious organisation' and claimed exemption from income tax on the grounds that it was engaged in educational, cultural and scientific research. If the society consists of the disciples and followers of Sri Aurobindo, if its primary object is to profess, practise and propagate the system of Integral Yoga, and, if, therefore, it is a section of a religious denomination, the circumstance that it is engaged in several secular activities and has represented itself to be a non-religious organisation for certain purposes cannot detract from the fact that it is a section of a religious denomination within the meaning of Art. 26 Therefore, we must hold, the Aurobindo Society is a section of a religious denomination within the meaning of the expression in Art. 26 of the Constitution.

But, the question is has the Fundamental Right guaranteed by Art. 26 been infringed by the Auroville (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1980. We have to notice straight away that the Act did not take away or purport to take away the management of the Shri Aurobindo Society. What it did or purported to do was "to provide for the taking over, in the public interest, of the management of Auroville for a limited period and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto." The long preamble says, "Whereas Shri Aurobindo Society, a non-

governmental organisation had been a channel of funds for the setting up of a cultural township known as Auroville, where people of different countries are expected to live together in harmony in one community and are expected to engage in cultural, educational, scientific and other pursuits aiming at human unity."

x x x "AND WHEREAS Auroville was developed as a cultural township with the aid of funds received from different organisations in and outside India as also from the substantial grants received from the Central and State Governments;

AND WHEREAS pursuant to the complaints received with regard to the misuse of funds by Sri Aurobindo Society, a committee was set up under the chairmanship of the Lieutenant-Governor of Pondicherry with representatives of the Government of Tamil Nadu and of the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Central Government, and the said committees had, after a detailed scrutiny, of the accounts of Shri Aurobindo Society, found instances of serious irregularities in the management of the said Society, misutilisation of its funds and their diversion to other purposes ;

AND WHEREAS in view of the serious difficulties which have arisen with regard to the management of Auroville, it is necessary to take over, for a limited period, the management, thereof and any delay in taking over the management of Auroville would be highly detrimental to the interests and objectives of Auroville;

The long preamble itself explains what Auroville is. S. 3(c) of the Act defines Auroville as meaning "so much of the undertakings as form part of, or are relatable to, the township which is known as Auroville and the charter of which proclaimed by the `Mother' on the 23rd day of February, 1968".

Now, the idea of Auroville was conceived by Madame M. Alfasse, affectionately and respectfully known to the disciples and followers of Shri Aurobindo as the Mother. The idea of a cultural township which would promote international understanding and world peace had great appeal to the Government of India and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and they extended their support to the project. But, things turned out to be not so smooth-sailing after all. There was dissension among the members of the Shri Aurobindo Society. Things came to such a pass that the impugned Act was necessitated. Misra J. has narrated the facts leading to the intervention of parliament. Parliament concerned itself with the management of Auroville only and with no other activity of the Shri Aurobindo Society, including ́its affairs in matters of religion'. In fact, section 4(2) makes it explicit that, except for matters relating to the management of Auroville, the provisions of the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961, under which the Society was registered, shall continue to apply to the Society in the same manner as before. Since the only activity of the Society which was touched by the Act was the management of Auroville, the question arises whether Auroville is an institution established and maintained for religious and charitable purposes and whether its management of Auroville is `a matter of religion'. Auroville is a township and not a place of worship. It is a township dedicated, not to the practice and propagation of any religious doctrine but to promote international understanding and world peace, surely, a secular and not a religious activity. The highest that can be said in favour of Auroville being a religious institution or its management being a religious matter, is that it was conceived by the Mother and shaped and sculpted by Shri Aurobindo's disciples and followers in the pursuit of one of the ideas and ideals of Shri Aurobindo, a great religious teacher. On the other hand, the ideal itself, that is, the promotion of international understanding and world peace is by no means a religious ideal and it was because of the nature of the ideal that the Government of India and the UNESCO adopted the project. Shri Aurobindo himself was not a mere religious teacher. He was a visionary, a humanist and a nationalist who had blossomed into an internationalist. It appears, therefore, that Auroville, though the child of the Mother and though nurtured by the devotees of Shri Aurobindo, has an individuality, distinctly secular, of its own. The management of the International, cultural township of Auroville is not, in our opinion, a matter of religion. We have mentioned earlier that laws regulating or restricting any economic, financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice are excluded from the guarantee of freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion. We have also pointed out that the administration of the property of a religious denomination is different from the right of the religious denomination to manage its own affairs in matters of religion and that laws may be made which regulate the right to administer the property of a religious denomination. Questions merely relating to administration of properties belonging to a religious group or institution are not matters of religion to which clause

(b) of Art. 26 applies. It has been so decided in the Shirur Mutt case as well as other cases following it. We are, therefore, of the view that the Auroville Emergency Provisions Act which provides for the taking over the management of Auroville for a limited period does not offend the rights guaranteed by Arts. 25 and 26 of the Constitution.

A passing reference was also made in the course of argument to Arts 29 and 30 of the Constitution, and it was said that the rights guaranteed by those Articles were also infringed. We are entirely at a loss to understand how the rights guaranteed by Arts. 29 and 30 can be said to have been infringed by the Auroville Emergency Provisions Act. No section of citizens having a culture of its own has been denied the right to conserve that culture and no religious minority has been denied the right to establish and to administer an educational institution of its choice.

On the several other questions argued before us I accept the conclusion of Misra J. The Writ Petitions are accordingly dismissed but in the circumstances there will be no order regarding costs.

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11th, 12th, 13th June 2020 Current affairs Vignan IAS

RBI has released draft Frameworks for ‘Sale of Loan Exposures’ and ‘Securitisation of Standard Assets’ About: These draft guidelines are applicable to all Scheduled Commercial Banks (excluding Regional Rural Banks); All India Financial Institutions (NABARD, NHB, EXIM Bank, and SIDBI); and, all Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) including Housing Finance Companies (HFCs). The guidelines attempt to align the regulatory framework with the Basel guidelines on securitisation that have come into force effective January 1, 2018. The revisions also take into account the recommendations of the Committee on Development of Housing Finance Securitisation Market in India (Chair: Dr. Harsh Vardhan) and the Task Force on the Development of Secondary Market for Corporate Loans (Chair: Shri T.N. Manoharan), which were set up by the RBI in May, 2019. Important Info : Salient features of draft guidelines: Only transactions that result in multiple tranches of securities being issued reflecting different credit risks will be treated as securitisation transactions.Two capital measurement approaches have been proposed: Securitisation External Ratings Based Approach (SEC-ERBA) and Securitisation Standardised Approach (SEC-SA).A special case of securitisation, called Simple, Transparent and Comparable (STC) securitisations, has been prescribed with clearly defined criteria and preferential capital treatment.The definition of securitisation has been modified to allow single asset securitisations. Securitisation of exposures purchased from other lenders has been allowed.Standard Assets would be allowed to be sold by lenders through assignment, novation or a loan participation contract . The Stressed Assets, however, would be allowed to be sold only through assignment or novation.Requirement of Minimum Retention Requirement (MRR) for sale of loans has been done away with. Source : The Hindu (Economy) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the COVID Emergency Credit Facility covers all companies and not just Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) About: The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) is the biggest fiscal component of the Rs 20-lakh crore Self-Reliant India Mission package announced by Finance Minister last month. Under the scheme, 100 per cent guarantee coverage will be provided by National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC) for additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore to eligible companies and borrowers, in the form of a guaranteed emergency credit line (GECL) facility. For this purpose, a corpus of Rs 41,600 crore was provided by the government, spread over the current and next three financial years. The scheme will be applicable to all loans sanctioned under GECL facility during the period from the date of announcement of the scheme to October 31 or till an amount of Rs 3 lakh crore is sanctioned under GECL, whichever is earlier. The main objective of the scheme is to provide an incentive to member lending institutions to increase access and enable availability of additional funding facility to borrowers, in view of the economic distress caused by the COVID-19 crisis. Source : All India Radio (Economy) Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) have recorded at least 14 earthquakes of low or medium intensity since April, 2020 About: As per the 2002 map by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), India is divided into four seismic zones – viz. Zone II, III, IV and V – based on seismicity, earthquakes occurred in the past and tectonic setup of the region. Delhi falls in Zone IV, which makes it vulnerable to earthquakes. Delhi does not lie on a plate boundary. It is located on a single plate, and the seismic activity is generated by internal deformities. Important Info : Seismic Zones: Zone II: This is seismically the least active region. It covers parts of India that are not included in Zone III, IV and V.Zone III: Comprises Kerala, Goa, Lakshadweep islands, remaining parts of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal, Parts of Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.Zone IV: It covers parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, Sikkim, Northern parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, parts of Gujarat and small portions of Maharashtra near the west coast and Rajasthan.Zone V: This is seismically the most active region. Parts of the Himalayan boundary in North and Northeast India fall in this zone. Kutch area in the West also falls here. Remaining parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttranchal, part of North Bihar and Andaman and the Nicobar Islands are included. Source : Indian Express (Disaster Management) A new study suggests that one of the ways of effective social distancing strategies to keep the Covid-19 curve flat include the idea of social bubbles About: A social bubble is a close-set of people i.e. like family, with whom we interact on a regular basis. During the current lockdown, a social bubble is limited to the members of a household with whom one interacts on a daily basis. However, as things normalise and conditions in general improve, this bubble can grow larger. It can then include close friends and relatives and neighbours. This in a later stage can expand further and include any person with whom we may need to get in contact with in our daily lives. The idea is that if people decide to expand their bubble gradually and make sure that they meet and contact only those who come inside their existing bubble, the risk of the spread of COVID-19 can be limited. It also reduces the psychological and financial harm of lockdowns. Research published by the London School of Economics and Political Science says that the concept of social bubbles proved effective for New Zealand since it allowed people who were isolated, vulnerable or struggling to receive the care and support they needed. Source : Indian Express (Health) A 3,000-years-old Mayan temple has been discovered in Mexico through laser mapping technique, making it the ancient civilisation's oldest and largest monument About: The temple site called Aquada Fenix, in Mexico, is 4,600 feet long and up to 50 feet high, making it larger than the Mayan pyramids and palaces of later periods. It was built between 800 BC and 1,000 BC. One of the most remarkable revelations from the find was the complete lack of stone sculptures related to rulers and elites, such as colossal heads and thrones, that are commonly seen in other Mayan temples. This suggests that the people who built it were more egalitarian than later generations of Mayans. Source : News18 (Geography) Gairsain in Chamoli district has been formally declared as the summer capital of Uttarakhand. A notification was issued after state governor gave her assent to the move About: The development came three months after Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had announced making Gairsain the summer capital, besides Dehradun, during the budget session of the assembly on March 4. Now, with the announcement of Gairsain as the summer capital, there is a lack of clarity on the status of Dehradun. Important Info : Background: Gairsain is a town and Nagar Panchayat in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand. Gairsain is situated at the eastern edge of the Dudhatoli mountain range.Uttarakhand was carved out as a separate state from Uttar Pradesh in 2000.Statehood activists had long contended that Gairsain, a tehsil in Chamoli district, was best suited to be the capital of the mountainous state as it was a hilly region falling on the border of Kumaon and Garhwal regions. But it was Dehradun, located in the plains, that served as the temporary capital.The state Assembly is located in Dehradun, but sessions are held in Gairsain as well. Source : Indian Express (Polity & Governance) The Ramon Magsaysay awards have been cancelled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the only third time the annual awards were disrupted in six decades. The awards were also cancelled due to a financial crisis in 1970 and a disastrous earthquake that hit the Philippines in 1990 About: Ramon Magsaysay award is popularly known as Asia’s Nobel Prize. Criteria: It is given to individuals and organizations in Asia regardless of race, creed, sex, or nationality, who have achieved distinction in their respective fields. (There are some instances where the winners came from Non-Asian countries, but accomplished something in Asia). Name: It is named after Ramon Magsaysay, the third president (1953-57) of Philippines. Background: It was established in 1957 by New York based Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), with the consent of Philippine government. The first Awards were given in 1958. Vinoba Bhave of India was one of the recipients. Awardees are presented with a certificate and a medal. Source : Times of India (Awards) Scientists from Raman Research Institute (RRI), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science &Technology have found out that spectrin, which are flexible rod-shaped molecules present in axons, act as ‘shock absorbers’ to protect axons from stretch-induced damage About: The study can help in understanding and treatment of concussion from head injuries as well as stretch-induced nerve injuries. Axons are long tubular extensions of nerve cells that transmit electrical signals across long distances and can be up to a meter long in the case of humans. At such lengths, they are subjected to large stretch deformations during limb or other bodily movements. Axons in the brain too undergo significant deformations, even during normal activities like jumping. Important Info : Axons vs Dendrite: An axon is one of two types of cytoplasmic protrusions from the cell body of a neuron; the other type is a dendrite.Axons are distinguished from dendrites by several features, includingshape (dendrites often taper while axons usually maintain a constant radius),length (dendrites are restricted to a small region around the cell body while axons can be much longer), andfunction (dendrites receive signals whereas axons transmit them). Source : DD News (Science & Technology) The Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) Complex was inaugurated at Visakhapatnam About: The DSRV Complex is designed to accommodate the newly inducted Submarine Rescue System with state of the art facilities to store the DSRV assets in a Rescue-Ready state. The DSRV system consists of a Submarine Rescue Vessel, a Remote Operations Vehicle, Side Scan Sonar and associated equipment. It also has Diver Decompression Chambers and hyperbaric medical equipment to decompress submariners after being rescued from a sunken submarine. The DSRV system can be rapidly mobilised by air or road to facilitate submarine rescue operations even at distant locations. The Indian Navy has inducted two such systems which will provide rescue cover to submarines on the West and East coast of India respectively. Currently, there are about 40 nations that operate submarines in the world out of which only a few have any form of submarine rescue capability. Source : All India Radio (Defence & Security) The World Accreditation Day (WAD) 2020 was celebrated on 9th June under the theme “Accreditation: Improving Food Safety About: The World Accreditation Day (WAD) is celebrated on 9th June every year to highlight as well as promote the role of accreditation in trade & economy. The theme for WAD 2020 is “Accreditation: Improving Food Safety”, as decided by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC). National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) and National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), the two accreditation boards of the Quality Council of India (QCI), organised a Webinar to commemorate the event. Important Info : Quality Council of India (QCI)? Quality Council of India (QCI) was set up in 1997 jointly by the Government of India and the Indian Industry represented by the three premier industry associations i.e. ASSOCHAM, CII and FICCI, to establish and operate national accreditation structure.The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, is the nodal ministry for QCI. Source : Economic Times (Economy) World Day Against Child Labour (WDACL) is being observed on 12 June under the theme “COVID-19: Protect children from child labour, now more than ever”, focussing on the impact of coronavirus crisis on child labour About: Nodal agency: It is an International Labour Organization (ILO)-sanctioned holiday aiming to raise awareness and activism to prevent child labour. Date of observance: The Day is observed every year on June 12. Background: It was first launched in It was spurred by ratifications of ILO Convention No. 138 on the minimum age for employment and ILO Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child labour. Important Info : Target 8.7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals calls for an end to child labour in all its forms by 2025. Source : United Nations (Social Issues) The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2021 were released About: The top 10 universities of the world comprised mainly the top-notch Ivy League colleges from the US, the UK and even one from Switzerland. While Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of the United States secured Rank 1, Stanford and Harvard universities secured the next two ranks in the list of the world’s best universities. UK's Oxford University took fifth place in the ranking. Indian scenario No Indian institute secured a position among the top 100 universities of the world. Like last year’s QS rankings, IIT Bombay, IISc Bengaluru, and IIT Delhi featured in the top 200 list, but all three saw a drop in their ranks this year. IIT Bombay dropped 20 spots -- from 152 to 172, IISC Bengaluru dropped just one spot from 184 to 185, and IIT Delhi dropped 11 spots from 182 to 193. The total number of Indian institutions in the top 1,000 global list has also fallen from 24 to 21. Important Info : Do you know? QS World University Rankings is published annually by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a British company specialising in the analysis of higher education institutions around the world.It measures the world’s top 1,000 universities on 6 factors:Academic reputation (40%)Employer reputation (10%)Faculty/Student Ratio (20%)Citations per faculty (20%)International Faculty Ratio (5%)International student ratio (5%) Source : The Hindu (Education) Indian Railways has created a new world benchmark by successfully running first Double-Stack Container Train in high-rise in Over Head Equipment (OHE) electrified territory on Western Railway About: The Operations successfully commenced on 10th June from Palanpur and Botad stations in Gujarat. With this remarkable development, Railways has become the first to run Double-Stack Container train with high reach pantograph in high rise Over Head Equipment territory, which has contact wire height of 7.57 metre This achievement is a first of its kind in the entire world and will also boost the ambitious mission of Green India. Source : All India Radio (Economy) Union Ministry of Environment has issued an advisory for import of exotic species. The move comes as the outbreak of COVID-19 has raised global concern about illegal wildlife trade and zoonotic diseases Key highlights of advisory: The advisory defines ‘Exotic Live Species’ as animal or plant species moved from their original range (location) to a new one. ‘Exotic live species’ shall be construed to mean only “the animals named under the Appendices I, II and III of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wild Fauna and Flora”. Species covered by the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 cannot be traded. People importing “exotic live species” will have to make a voluntary disclosure. For new ‘Exotic Live Species’, the importer should obtain a no-objection certificate from the Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) of the State. For Existing Species, stocks “shall be declared by the owner/ holder to the Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) of the concerned State or UT”. Important Info : Comment: It will create a process where all imports will be screened. As of now, the imports are being made through the Director General of Foreign Trade and State Forest departments are not kept in the loop.Several exotic species of birds, reptiles, small mammals, fishes and even some plants are imported. Blue and gold macaws are popular exotic pets. Source : The Hindu (Environment) In the reporting on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) stand-off, the Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldie (DSDBO) road has often appeared. The Chinese build-up along the Galwan River valley region overlooks, and hence poses a direct threat to the DSDBO road About: Darbuk-Shyokh-Daulat Beg Oldie (DSDBO) is the 255-km long all-weather road built by India’s Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in eastern Ladakh. It runs almost parallel to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at Aksai Chin, the eastern ear of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state that China occupied in the 1950s, leading to the 1962 war in which India came off worse. In October 2019, Defence Minister Singh inaugurated a 500-m-long Bailey Bridge on the road. The bridge is named after Colonel Chewang Rinchen, an Indian Army hero from Ladakh. Located at 14,650 ft, it is believed to be the world’s highest such bridge. Important Info : Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO)? DSDBO connects Leh to Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO), the northernmost corner of Indian territory in Ladakh. DBO itself is less than 10 km west of the LAC at Aksai Chin.DBO has the world’s highest airstrip. Source : Indian Express (Geography) International Albinism Awareness Day 2020 is being observed on June 13 under the theme "Made to Shine" to celebrate the achievements of persons with albinism worldwide About: What is it? Albinism is a congenital disorder characterized in humans by the complete or partial absence of pigmentation (melanin) in the skin, hair and eyes. It is non-contagious. Health impact: Albinism is associated with a number of vision defects, such as photophobia, nystagmus, and amblyopia. Lack of skin pigmentation increases vulnerability to the sun and bright light. As a result, almost all people with albinism are visually impaired and are prone to developing skin cancer. Cause: Albinism results from inheritance of recessive gene alleles. In almost all types of albinism, both parents must carry the gene for it to be passed on, even if they do not have albinism themselves. Prevalence: The condition is found in both sexes regardless of ethnicity and in all countries of the world. Treatment: There is no cure for the absence of melanin that is central to albinism. Source : United Nations (Health) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released a Discussion Paper on ‘Governance in Commercial Banks in India’ for public comments About: The objective of the discussion paper is to align the current regulatory framework with global best practices while being mindful of the context of domestic financial system. Based on the feedback, fresh guidelines will be issued. The new norms will come into effect within six months after being placed the RBI’s website or April 1, 2021, whichever is later. The norms will be applicable to private, foreign and public sector banks. Some of the major highlights of the paper are as follows: Board members should not be a member of any other bank’s board or the RBI and should not be either a Member of Parliament or State Legislature or Municipality or other local bodies. Board of directors of a bank should not be less than six and not more than 15, with a majority being independent directors. The board shall meet at least six times a year and at least once every 60 days. A director on the board of an entity other than a bank may be considered for appointment as director on a bank’s board, if the person is not an owner of an NBFC or a full-time employee and that the NBFC does not enjoy a financial accommodation from the bank. Appointment, re-appointment and termination of wholetime directors (WTDs) and chief executive officers CEOs) should be with the previous approval of RBI. The upper age limit for CEO and WTDs of banks is suggested at 70 years. Banks will be free to set a lower age for such appointments. Source : The Hindu (Economy) About: The IFLOWS-Mumbai has been developed by the Union Ministry for Earth Sciences on the request of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). IFLOWS-Mumbai is a state of art Integrated Flood Warning system for Mumbai. It is expected to enhance Mumbai’s resilience by providing early warning for flooding specially during high rainfall events and cyclones. I-FLOWS comprises seven modules, namely Data Assimilation, Flood, Inundation, Vulnerability, Risk, Dissemination Module and Decision Support System. The system has provisions to capture the urban drainage within the city and predict the areas of flooding, which will be incorporated in the final system. Source : All India Radio Integrated Flood Warning System - IFLOWS was inaugurated in Mumbai by Union Minister for Earth Sciences and Maharashtra Chief Minister About: The IFLOWS-Mumbai has been developed by the Union Ministry for Earth Sciences on the request of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). IFLOWS-Mumbai is a state of art Integrated Flood Warning system for Mumbai. It is expected to enhance Mumbai’s resilience by providing early warning for flooding specially during high rainfall events and cyclones. I-FLOWS comprises seven modules, namely Data Assimilation, Flood, Inundation, Vulnerability, Risk, Dissemination Module and Decision Support System. The system has provisions to capture the urban drainage within the city and predict the areas of flooding, which will be incorporated in the final system. Source : All India Radio (Disaster Management) Union Agriculture Minister launched Sahakar Mitra: Scheme on Internship Programme (SIP) About: Objective: To help cooperative institutions access innovative ideas of young professionals while the interns will gain experience of working in the field to be self-reliant. Bodies involved: The scheme is an initiative by National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), the cooperative sector development finance organization. Eligibility under scheme: Professional graduates in disciplines such as Agriculture and allied areas, IT etc. will be eligible for internship. Professionals who are pursuing or have completed their MBA degrees in Agri-business, Cooperation, Finance, International Trade, Forestry, Rural Development, Project Management etc. will also be eligible. Stipend: Each intern will get financial support over a 4 months internship period. Source : PIB (Economy) The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) will classify railway stations under the red, orange and green categories based on the quantity of waste water generated and the disposal of untreated water into the municipal drain system About: Railway stations generating waste water equal to or more than 100 Kilo Litres per Day (KLD) would be categorised as Red. Railway stations generating waste water greater than 10 KLD but less than 100 KLD would come under the Orange category. Railway stations with less than 10 KLD waste water generation would be branded Green. CPCB, by invoking powers under the provisions of the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, had issued a direction to all State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) to categorise railway stations and send an action taken report. Source : The Hindu (Environment) Read the full article

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