The Supreme Court said this in response to a plea challenging the Centre’s December 2012 order making recital of Sanskrit shlokas mandatory during morning assemblies at Kendriya Vidyalayas.
Prayers inculcating moral values are not confined to any religion, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday while hearing a plea challenging a December 2012 Union government order that made the recital of Sanskrit shlokas mandatory during morning assemblies at Kendriya Vidyalayas.
A bench of justices Indira Banerjee, Surya Kant, and MM Sundresh said such recitals are meant to inculcate moral values. “Values inculcated in school; we still carry. This basic education is so important.” No order was passed in the matter.
Advocate Veenayak Shah moved the plea in 2017. In January 2019, a two-judge bench referred the matter to the larger bench saying the petition raises questions of seminal importance citing Article 28(1) of the Constitution, which says no religious instruction shall be provided in any state-funded educational institution.
The Centre argued at the time that nobody could object to the use of Sanskrit shlokas as they proclaim a “universal truth”. It said the Supreme Court emblem is inscribed with “yato dharmastato jayah (where there is dharma, there is victory)” and added these words have been taken from Upanishads and find reference in the Mahabharata. It contended that merely because they are contained in Mahabharata, does not mean that the Supreme Court is religious.
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