The Constitution of India guarantees religious freedom under Articles 25 and 26, while simultaneously subjecting it to public order, morality, health, and other Fundamental Rights. To reconcile denominational autonomy with constitutional supremacy, the Supreme Court evolved the Essential Religious Practices doctrine in Shirur Mutt (1954).
ERP doctrine balances religious freedom with constitutional morality:
1. Distinction between faith and administration:
- The ERP doctrine first distinguishes between what is genuinely religious and what is secular or administrative in nature.
- In Shirur Mutt (1954), the Court held that essential religious practices are protected, but secular aspects, such as financial administration of temples can be regulated by the State.
2. Protecting Core and excluding superstitions:
- In Durgah Committee (1961), the Court clarified that only practices integral to a religion are protected, and superstitious or extraneous accretions do not enjoy constitutional immunity.
- By filtering out non-essential customs, the doctrine prevents religion from being used to legitimise irrational or socially harmful practices.
3. Social reform within constitutional boundaries:
- The ERP doctrine has been invoked to facilitate reform when practices conflict with equality and dignity.
- In Shayara Bano (2017), Triple Talaq was held not essential to Islam and therefore unconstitutional.
4. Subordinating religious autonomy to constitutional morality:
- In Sabarimala case, 2018, the Court held that even an essential practice cannot survive if it violates fundamental rights such as equality.
- Thus, constitutional morality acts as the ultimate yardstick, placing the Constitution above denominational claims.
Evolution of judicial intervention in religious issues:
1. Pre-Constitutional Phase: civil rights and access:
- Before independence, religious disputes were addressed largely through a civil rights lens.
- In Sankaralinga Nadan v. Raja Rajeswara Dorai (1908), the Privy Council adjudicated caste-based temple entry restrictions.
2. Foundational Phase: birth of the ERP doctrine, 1950s-60s.
- With the Constitution in force, courts assumed a more active interpretative role.
- In Shirur Mutt (1954), the Supreme Court formally articulated the ERP test. Soon after, Durgah Committee (1961) refined the doctrine by limiting protection to integral practices.
3. Rationalisation Phase: narrowing essentiality, 1990s-2000s.
- In cases such as Ismail Faruqui (1995) and Ananda Marga (2004), the Court tightened the standard, holding that a practice is essential only if its absence fundamentally alters the religion.
- This phase reflected judicial caution and doctrinal consolidation.
4. Transformative constitutional phase: Primacy of equality, 2010s.
- The 2010s witnessed a rights-centric shift. In Shayara Bano (2017) and Sabarimala (2018), the Court prioritised equality and dignity over religious autonomy.
- Judicial intervention became more reformist, aligning religious adjudication with transformative constitutionalism.
5. Contemporary rebalancing: Respecting denominational autonomy, 2020s.
- Recent High Court decisions such as P. Navin Kumar (2024), Thiruparankundram Deepathoon (2026), and Kanchipuram Varadaraja Perumal (2026) show greater sensitivity to sectarian rights under Article 26.
- These rulings signal an effort to prevent excessive administrative or judicial intrusion into long-standing rituals.
Conclusion:
The ERP doctrine represents a uniquely Indian constitutional experiment in reconciling faith with reform. The evolution of the ERP doctrine reflects India’s attempt to harmonise religious pluralism with constitutional supremacy, ensuring that faith flourishes, but never beyond the limits of equality and dignity.
‘+1’ Value Addition:
- Tamil Nadu HR&CE Department administers 44,000+ temples show the scale of state oversight
- Unlike U.S. separationism, India follows Positive Secularism model emphasising “principled equidistance”.
- Law Commission, 2018, favoured “reform from within” communities over externally imposed uniformity.
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