Decoding The Test Of ‘Essential Religious Practice’

Anmol Sharma & Shrrijiet Roychowdhary

ABSTRACT

The right to freely profess, practice, and promote religion is guaranteed in Article 25 of the Constitution. Article 26 of the Constitution allows religious denominations the right to govern their religious affairs, among other things. These two fundamental religious clauses have frequently raised the question of what the line between religious and secular is. To address this issue, courts devised the 'essential religious practice' test. This article studies a timeline of cases which have discussed the importance of ‘Essential Religious Practice’ test since its inception. The article emphasizes the importance of the transition from ‘essentially religious’ to ‘essential to religion’, but at the same time highlights the areas of question still not discussed which have left courts with a lot of discretion and burden. The article highlights international cases which are of grave importance to the idea of protection of one’s religious practice. It leaves it up to the readers where the discourse on ERP will slowly change from essential to religion practice to each practice passing the test of constitutional morality as expressed in various opinions by present CJI Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.

Keywords: Religion, Secular, Denomination, Practice, Essential, Constitutional Law