New Delhi: The Supreme Court upheld that a secular state cannot exclude a dignitary from state-sponsored events on religious grounds, rejecting a petition that sought to block Booker Prize-winning author Banu Mushtaq from inaugurating the Mysuru Dasara festivities.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta delivered a sharp lesson on constitutional values on Friday, with Justice Nath pointedly asking the petitioner if he had read the Preamble of the Constitution.

The bench emphasised that the Dasara celebration is a state-sponsored event, not a private religious programme. "This is a State event... The State cannot distinguish between A, B or C religion," Justice Nath stated, affirming that the government must remain neutral and cannot discriminate based on faith.

The petitioner, H.S. Gaurav, had argued that while the "ribbon-cutting" was a secular activity, the inaugural pooja before the deity at the Chamundeshwari temple was an "essential religious practice" that a non-Hindu could not perform. The plea contended that inviting Mushtaq, a Muslim, to participate in the rituals was a political act that violated Hindu religious practices protected under Article 25 of the Constitution.

However, the bench refused to entertain this distinction, upholding the Karnataka high court's September 15 decision which had found no constitutional violation. The high court had noted that Mushtaq is an accomplished person and that the participation of an individual from one faith in the festival of another does not offend any constitutional rights.

The Supreme Court's ruling is rooted in the established legal doctrine that secularism is a "basic feature" of the Constitution, a principle upheld in landmark cases like Kesavananda Bharati and S.R. Bommai.

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