Articles 25 and 26 of the Indian Constitution operationalise the secular commitment by guaranteeing religious freedom to individuals and denominations alike, while embedding it within constitutional limits that protect public order, morality, and health.
Article 25 grants every person the right to freely profess, practise, and propagate religion, subject to public order, morality, and health. These restrictions are not peripheral — they allow the State to regulate or restrict religious practice when it conflicts with broader societal interests, including social reform legislation.
The Supreme Court, in the Stanislaus case, clarified that the right to 'propagate' religion means the right to transmit or spread one's beliefs through persuasion, not the right to convert another person by force, fraud, or inducement. Forcible conversion violates the convert's own freedom of conscience under Article 25, creating an internal constitutional tension.
Article 26 confers rights on religious denominations and sections thereof — not on individuals — to establish and maintain institutions, manage religious affairs, and administer property. A denomination must satisfy judicially recognised criteria: a common faith, organisation, and a distinctive name.
Both articles permit the State to legislate on secular activities associated with religious practice. Anti-conversion laws enacted by several states have been upheld as valid exercises of this regulatory power, provided they target coercion rather than peaceful persuasion.
Religious freedom under Articles 25 and 26 is neither absolute nor merely symbolic. Sustaining its balance requires the State to distinguish between protecting genuine belief and preventing coercive or exclusionary practices that undermine constitutional equality.
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