LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court today refused to issue directions to the authorities concerned in the central and state governments to introduce compulsory religious education right from class one to the post-graduate level to the all students.
The court, however, observed that religious and moral education had their signficance.
A division bench of Justices Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Vijay Laxmi of the court's Lucknow bench stated this while reserving its verdict on a PIL filed by 'Hindu Front For Justice' (HFJ) seeking directions for compulsory religious education to all students.
It was submitted on behalf of HFJ that even after 66 years of the enforcement of the Constitution, religious and moral education did not find their proper place in the curriculum of schools which was resulting in the youth going astray, thereby increasing the ills in the society.
The counsel for the central and state governments had both placed before the court documents to indicate that the policy for providing the curriculum for primary and secondary schools.
"We have to understand that the great virtues of loyalty, courage, discipline and self-sacrifice are essential for a successful citizen. Unless morality is taken in a larger sense, it is not enough", the court said.
"If we exclude spectral training in our educational institutions, we would be untrue to our whole historical development. We must habituate the students to right emotions, induce in them the formation of good moral, mental and physical habits", it observed.
With these observations the court disposed of the petition.