Delhi High Court to Centre, RBI : Reply on PIL about withdrawal of coins having religious symbols embossed on them

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today granted one last opportunity to the Centre and the RBI to file their responses to a PIL seeking withdrawal of coins having religious symbols embossed on them. A bench, comprising Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Pradeep Nandrajog, asked them to file their replies by August 20, the next date of hearing.

The issue may create further problem if members of other communities raise it, the bench said. The state should not be seen as propagating any religion and the word secularism should be construed in right context, it had said. Earlier, the court had issued notices to the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and asked them to file a status report within three weeks detailing the policy under which the symbols of temples and deities are being embossed on coins.

Additional Solicitor General Rajeeve Mehra, appearing for the Centre, said such coins have been issued to commemorate a particular historical event. The court is hearing a PIL filed by Delhi residents, Nafis Qazi and Abu Sayeed, through lawyer A Rasheed Qureshi.

The petition has sought a direction to the RBI and the Finance Ministry to withdraw the coins brought out in 2010 and 2013 with religious symbols on them. "Direct the Respondent No 1 (Centre) to formulate a national policy whereby figures and symbols of any religion are prohibited from being made on any tangible or intangible property of the Indian State," it said.

"These symbols undermine the secular character, a basic feature of the Constitution.... The making, marking, naming, drawing, embossing or displaying overtly any religious figure or symbol is tantamount to espousing a religion by the State," the plea said.

The government, in 2010, brought into circulation a five Rupee coin in celebration of 1000 years of Brihadeeswara Temple, Thanjavur, with its image embossed on it. "Again in 2013 the Respondent No. 2 (RBI) brought out another five Rupee coin with the figure of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board embossed on it," it said and termed the state action as "anti-secular".