Freedom of Religion (Articles 25–28)

📑 On this page

⚡ The short answer

Every person, citizen or not, may freely believe, profess, practise and propagate a religion, and every religious denomination may manage its own religious affairs. Both yield to public order, morality and health. The State may still regulate religion's secular side and push social reform, but it cannot tax you to promote one particular religion.

🎬 The 30-second story

The midnight speakers

“Night-long prayer from 11. Speakers on full!”

🔊

Rohan

Rohan's group sets up beside a hospital lane.

“There are patients in there!”

🏥

Zoya

Zoya complains at 2 a.m.

“Pray on. Amplifiers off after 10 p.m.”

🔇

A noise rule that binds everyone.

“That's an attack on my religion!”

⚖️

Rohan

Rohan goes to court.

Tara's ruling: Rohan loses. His belief and prayer are untouched. Loudspeakers aren't essential to any faith, and even essential practices yield to public order and health.

What does freedom of religion actually protect?

Four guarantees: one for the individual, one for religious groups, and two that stop the State taking sides through your taxes or your classroom.

🧩 At a glance

The four guarantees

🧘Conscience and practice

Any person may hold, declare, practise and spread a faith, or hold none.

🛕Religious affairs

A denomination runs its institutions and religious matters, and owns property subject to law.

🧾No religious tax

No compelled tax earmarked for a particular religion.

🏫No forced prayers

Fully State-funded schools teach no religion; elsewhere attendance needs consent.

📌 What CLAT actually expects

No theology, no article numbers. The passage hands you a line, such as tax vs fee or religious vs secular, often worded as ‘the State may regulate secular activity associated with religious practice’. Put the facts on the right side of it.

Whose right is it: the individual's or the group's?

⚔️ Side by side

Individual vs denomination

🧍The individual

Your faith, your conscience

•Believe, profess, practise, propagate
•Includes believing in nothing
•Every person, Indian or foreign

🛕The denomination

The group runs its own religious house

•Set up and run institutions
•Manage affairs in matters of religion
•Administer property as the law says

Test	The individual	The denomination
Limits	Public order, morality, health, other rights, regulation, reform	Public order, morality, health

Courts read the two together: a group's right can't defeat a law opening public temples to all.

🧮 The formula

When is a group a ‘religious denomination’?

📿

Common faith

beliefs key to spiritual well-being

🏛️

Common organisation

🏷️

Distinctive name

🛕

Denomination

Miss one and only individual rights remain. In Sabarimala, devotees shared only common Hindu beliefs, so they were no separate denomination and couldn't claim the temple's entry rule as their own affair.

Where can the State step into religion?

🎚️ The scale

How far can the State reach?

← UntouchableFully regulable →

Belief

Absolutely free.

e.g. believing in rebirth

Essential practice

Protected, but yields to public order, morality, health.

e.g. a prescribed daily ritual

Non-essential practice

No special protection.

e.g. prayer via loudspeakers

Secular activity

Regulable like anything else.

e.g. auditing temple donations

Social reform overrides custom too: public Hindu temples can be opened to all Hindus. ‘Morality’ here means constitutional morality.

Does ‘propagate’ include a right to convert?

No. To propagate is to spread your faith by explaining it; the listener has the same freedom of conscience. In Rev. Stainislaus the Court upheld laws punishing conversion by force, fraud or allurement as public-order measures. Preaching is free; a job offered for conversion is not.

Is it an essential religious practice?

🧭 Decision flow

Does the practice get protection?

❓ Is it about belief alone, with no outward act?

Yes →

Absolutely protected

No ↓

❓ Is the activity secular: money, property, staff, administration?

Yes →

The State may regulate it

No ↓

❓ Is it essential: would the religion change in character without it?

Not merely customary or optional

No →

No religious protection

Yes ↓

❓ Does it threaten public order, morality or health, or fall under a reform law?

Yes →

Protected, but may be restricted

No →

Protected: hands off

Who decides what is essential? First, the religion's own doctrines: food offerings at fixed hours are religion even though they cost money. Later judges began deciding themselves, often from scripture, and critics say secular courts shouldn't rule on theology.

ℹ️ An unsettled area

Sabarimala (2018) held a ban on women aged 10–50 not essential; the dissent said courts shouldn't test faith for rationality, and wider questions went to a larger bench in 2019. The 2022 hijab bench split. Apply the passage's test.

Can your taxes be spent on a religion?

Indian secularism is not a wall between State and religion; it means equal respect. So the State cannot compel you to pay a tax earmarked to promote a particular religion. All three words must fit.

⚔️ Side by side

Tax vs fee: the line CLAT tested

🧾Tax

Compulsory, nothing specific in return

•Barred if earmarked for one religion
•e.g. a ‘pilgrimage tax’ on every resident

🎟️Fee

Paid for a service you get

•Valid even at a religious site
•e.g. a pilgrim fee for medical camps

Test	Tax	Fee
Object	Funds the faith itself	Funds secular administration around it
Result	Invalid if for a particular religion	Valid

Ask what the money buys: promoting a faith is barred; safety and honest administration are not.

Facts	Promoting a religion?	Why
Public money repairs temple tanks everyone uses for bathing and drinking	No	Secular public use
Every resident pays a tax to fund one faith's pilgrimage	Yes	Compelled tax, one religion
Temples pay a share of income to fund the endowments regulator	No	Proper administration

→ scroll to see more

Can a school make you attend prayers?

Type of school	Religious instruction?
Wholly maintained out of State funds	Banned
State-run, but set up under a trust requiring it	Allowed
Recognised by, or aided by, the State	Allowed, but attendance needs consent

→ scroll to see more

Consent means the student's, or a guardian's for a minor. An aided convent school may hold chapel; it cannot force a 16-year-old in.

Which cases shaped freedom of religion?

🛕

Landmark case · 1954 · Supreme Court

Commissioner, HRE v Sri Lakshmindra Thirtha Swamiar (Shirur Mutt)

📋

What happened

A Madras law gave a Commissioner sweeping control over a Udupi math and made institutions pay an annual contribution for the regulator's costs.

❓

The question

How far can the State manage a religious institution?

🔨

What the court held

Religion covers rituals, not just belief; what is essential is judged by its own tenets. Several controls fell. The levy was a tax, void for lack of State power, but not a religious tax: its object was proper administration.

What CLAT takes from it: Essential practices are protected; secular administration is regulable.

🎶

Landmark case · 1986 · Supreme Court

Bijoe Emmanuel v State of Kerala

📋

What happened

Three Jehovah's Witness children stood respectfully for the national anthem but, as their faith required, did not sing. They were expelled.

❓

The question

Can a school punish that silence?

🔨

What the court held

No. No law compelled singing, standing showed no disrespect, and the belief was genuinely held. Expulsion violated their religious freedom.

What CLAT takes from it: The test is sincerity of belief, not whether others find it reasonable.

⛰️

Landmark case · 2018 · Supreme Court (4:1)

Indian Young Lawyers Association v State of Kerala (Sabarimala)

📋

What happened

A rule barred women aged 10 to 50 from the Sabarimala temple, citing custom.

❓

The question

Essential practice or a denomination's right?

🔨

What the court held

Neither. The exclusion was not essential and denied women equal worship; ‘morality’ means constitutional morality. Rule struck down.

What CLAT takes from it: Every believer, woman or man, holds the right to practise.

🏛️

Landmark case · 1994 · Supreme Court (9 judges)

SR Bommai v Union of India

📋

What happened

State governments were dismissed under President's Rule, three after the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition.

❓

The question

Is secularism part of the Constitution's unamendable core?

🔨

What the court held

Yes. Secularism is basic structure: the State must treat all religions equally. Those three dismissals were upheld.

What CLAT takes from it: Secular means equal respect, not hostility to religion.

How has CLAT asked freedom of religion?

📝 Asked in CLAT 2022 · Q71 Secular use of public money

… It is against the general policy of the Constitution of India that any money be paid out of the public funds for promoting or maintaining any particular religion. Accordingly, it is provided in the Constitution of India that no person shall be compelled to pay any taxes, the proceeds of which are specifically appropriated in payment of expenses for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination. … This, however, does not invalidate levy of a fee to provide some service. Thus, a fee can be levied on pilgrims to a religious fair to meet the expenses of the measures taken to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of the pilgrims. Such fee levied by a State will be valid because the object of such contribution is not to foster or preserve religion, but to control secular administration of religious institutions.

Mr. A, a tax-payer of various taxes levied by the State Government, filed a writ petition for a writ of mandamus directing the State to forbear from spending any amount from public funds for renovation of water tanks belonging to a Hindu temple in the State. These tanks were used by the general public, irrespective of their religious affiliation, for bathing and drinking purposes. Which of the following statements is correct?

AThe State is promoting or maintaining the Hindu religion.

BThe State cannot be said to be promoting or maintaining the Hindu religion.

CThe State is compelling citizens to pay tax for promotion of Hindu religion.

DThe State is compelling citizens to pay tax for maintenance of Hindu religion.

Reveal answer + reasoning

Answer: B

Ask what the money does. The tanks serve everyone for bathing and drinking: a secular utility that happens to sit on temple land.

Why the others fail

A — temple ownership doesn't make public, secular use religious.
C — no tax is earmarked, and nothing religious is promoted.
D — maintaining a tank is not maintaining a religion.

📝 Asked in CLAT 2022 · Q74 Pilgrimage tax

Same passage as above (no compelled tax for a particular religion; a fee for a service is valid).

A State government passed a law making it mandatory for all residents of the State to pay a hefty ‘pilgrimage tax’ to aid the State in organizing a popular religious pilgrimage, undertaken only by followers of religion ‘X’, which draws a large number of them from all over the country every year. Which of the following statements is correct?

AThe State government's act is violative of the Constitution of India as it is not promoting or maintaining religion ‘X’.

BThe State government's act is not violative of the Constitution of India as it is not promoting or maintaining religion ‘X’.

CThe State government's act is violative of the Constitution of India as it is compelling citizens to pay tax for promoting or maintaining religion ‘X’.

DThe State government's act is not violative of the Constitution of India as it is a measure to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of the pilgrims.

Reveal answer + reasoning

Answer: C

All three boxes tick: compelled (every resident), a tax (no service to the payer), for a particular religion (only X's followers go).

Why the others fail

A — right result, wrong reason.
B — funding one faith's pilgrimage from a compulsory levy does promote it.
D — that justifies a fee on pilgrims, not a tax on everyone.

📝 Asked in CLAT 2022 · Q75 Contribution for administration

Same passage as above (a fee is valid where its object is secular administration, not fostering religion).

The object of a State Legislation is ‘to provide for the better administration and governance of certain Hindu religious endowments’ … It vests the supervision of public temples in a ‘Commissioner of Hindu Religious Endowments’. To meet the expenses of the Commissioner and his staff, every Hindu temple in the State must pay an annual contribution at a certain percentage of its annual income. Which statement is correct regarding the annual contribution?

AIt is not violative of the Constitution of India because its object is the proper administration of religious trusts and institutions.

BIt is not violative of the Constitution of India because its object is fostering of Hindu religion.

CIt is violative of the Constitution of India because its object is fostering of Hindu religion.

DIt is violative of the Constitution of India because its object is not inclusive of administration of religious endowments belonging to all religions.

Reveal answer + reasoning

Answer: A

Nearly the Shirur Mutt facts. The money pays a regulator to keep temple property honestly run: secular administration, not fostering a faith.

Why the others fail

B — fostering Hinduism would make it invalid, not valid.
C — supervising endowments is administrative.
D — the passage doesn't require regulating every religion at once.

⚠️ Q72 and Q73: rebuilding after riots

Public money rebuilt riot-damaged places of worship: both communities' in Q72, only the victim community's in Q73. Both times the key said not promoting a religion (B, then C). Q73 is arguable under ‘maintaining any particular religion’, but the examiner's line is restoration ≠ promotion.

💥 Myth vs fact

Flip the traps

🙅 Myth

Secular means the State stays completely away from religion.

Tap to bust it →

✅ Fact

It means equal respect: regulate the secular side, reform social evils, favour no faith.

🙅 Myth

Only citizens have freedom of religion.

Tap to bust it →

✅ Fact

The individual right belongs to all persons, foreigners included.

🙅 Myth

Propagating includes converting others.

Tap to bust it →

✅ Fact

Conversion by force, fraud or allurement can be punished.

🙅 Myth

Any practice linked to religion is protected.

Tap to bust it →

✅ Fact

Only essential ones, and even they yield to public order, morality and health.

🎯 Quick quiz

Religion or regulation? 5 quick fact patterns

0 / 5

A sect with its own tenets, council and name is told by law that an officer will fix the order of its morning rituals.

Q1. Is the law valid?

The same sect must bank all donations, publish audited accounts and pay priests by bank transfer.

Q2. Does this violate its religious freedom?

A law punishes conversion by force, fraud or allurement. Aarav offers Zoya a well-paid job if she adopts his faith; she agrees.

Q3. Is Aarav protected by the right to propagate?

Meher, 16, attends a State-aided private school that marks students absent from weekly scripture class. Her guardian never consented.

Q4. Can the school compel her?

A State levies a petrol cess earmarked solely to build a grand shrine of one faith.

Q5. Is the cess valid?

More Constitution passages, against the clock

Passage-based Constitutional Law drills on the real CLAT exam screen, with full solutions.

Start a Constitutional Law drill

🎯 In a nutshell

Belief is absolutely free; practice yields to public order, morality and health.
Only essential practices are protected; religion's secular side is regulable.
A denomination needs a common faith, organisation and distinctive name.
Propagate ≠ convert: forced or induced conversion can be punished.
No compelled tax for a particular religion; service fees and secular spending are fine.

📎 Good to know, not to memorise

Constitution: Art 25 (individual; Explanation I covers the Sikh kirpan), Art 26 (denominations), Art 27 (religious tax), Art 28 (religious instruction). ‘Secular’ entered the Preamble by the 42nd Amendment, 1976.
Shirur Mutt (1954); Sri Venkataramana Devaru (1957), temple entry vs denominations; Rev. Stainislaus (1977); Bijoe Emmanuel (1986); SR Bommai (1994); Church of God (Full Gospel) (2000), loudspeakers; Sabarimala (2018); Aishat Shifa (2022, split).

Frequently asked questions

What is the essential religious practice test?

It asks whether a religion would change in character without the practice. Only essential practices are protected, and even they yield to public order, morality and health. Who decides what is essential is still debated.

Is India secular if the State manages temples?

Yes. Indian secularism means equal respect, not total separation. The State may regulate the secular side of religious institutions, like property and accounts, and pursue reform. It cannot adopt or favour a religion.

Can a foreigner claim freedom of religion in India?

Yes. The individual right covers ‘all persons’, so foreigners may practise and propagate their faith. Speech and movement freedoms belong only to citizens: a common trap.

What is the difference between a tax and a fee for religious purposes?

A tax is compulsory with no specific service in return; earmarked for a particular religion, it is barred. A fee pays for a service, like pilgrims' safety, and is valid because it funds secular administration, not the faith.

Is forced conversion protected by the right to propagate?

No. Propagating means explaining your faith, not converting others. Laws punishing conversion by force, fraud or allurement have been upheld as protecting public order and others' conscience.