NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court declined to hear a plea seeking to check the ‘devastating consequences’ of its 1995 judgment on Hindutva or Hinduism. The decade-old judgment defined Hindutva as a ‘way of life’ and said it had nothing to do with ‘narrow fundamentalist religious bigotry’. The court clarified that it was now only examining as to what constitutes corrupt electoral practices and would not go into the larger issue of religion.
“We will not go into the larger debate as to what is Hindutva or what is its meaning. We will not re-consider the 1995 judgement and also not examine Hindutva or religion at this stage,” a seven-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur said. “At this stage, we will confine ourselves to the issue raised before us in the reference. In the reference, there is no mention of the word ‘Hindutva’.
If anybody will show that there is a reference to the word ‘Hindutva’, we will hear him,” the bench said.
Last week, social activist Teesta Setalvad sought to intervene in the matter, requesting for a direction to be passed to de-link religion from politics. Theatre activist Shamsul Islam and journalist Dilip Mandal are the other applicants in the case. The hearing is scheduled to continue on Wednesday.