Judicial Governance Of Religion In India And Indonesia: Essential Practices, Pancasila, And Constitutional Courts
- IJLLR Journal
- Jul 2
- 1 min read
David Pradhan & Chandan Panigrahi
ABSTRACT
This review article examines the judicial governance of religion in India and Indonesia. It posits that constitutional courts in both jurisdictions go beyond mere resolution of disputes over religious freedom. Through their decisions, judges constitutively define the legal meaning of religion, circumscribe the limits of constitutional protections, and mediate the relationship between public order, equality, conscience, community, and State authority. India and Indonesia are useful for comparison because both postcolonial constitutional democracies are deeply religiously diverse, but speak different constitutional vocabularies. India uses the language of secularism, freedom of conscience, denominational autonomy, equality and the basic structure. Indonesia uses Pancasila, belief in the One and Only God, religious harmony, public order, and administrative recognition of religion and belief. In India, the essential religious practices doctrine has allowed courts to protect religious autonomy, but it has also placed judges in the difficult position of deciding what a religion truly means and comprises of. In Indonesia, the Constitutional Court has interpreted Pancasila and Article 29 of the 1945 Constitution in ways that preserve the regulated religious order, while also opening limited space for excluded belief communities. The blasphemy law decision and the indigenous beliefs decision reveal this dual character. The article concludes that judicial governance of religion should be assessed through recognition, regulation, and restraint. Courts must recognise plurality without converting recognition into hierarchy, permit regulation only through disciplined constitutional reasons, and restrain both State power and judicial theological overreach.
Keywords: Judicial governance, essential practices, Pancasila, Constitutional Courts, Religious freedom.
