ValkyaEditorial

Tagged “secularism”

2 articles on secularism.

Landmark JudgmentKarnataka High Court, Bengaluru

Karnataka HC dismisses Vande Mataram PIL: an MHA advisory using 'may' is directory, not mandatory

On 9 April 2026 a Karnataka High Court division bench led by Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru dismissed a PIL against the MHA's 'Vande Mataram' school-recitation advisory as premature, holding that the advisory's permissive 'may' formulation, absence of penal consequence, and lack of any actual coercive enforcement against the petitioner left no live constitutional grievance to adjudicate.

Valkya Editorial··8 min
Landmark JudgmentSupreme Court of India

S.R. Bommai v. Union of India: the nine-judge Bench on Article 356, judicial review, and secularism as basic structure

On 11 March 1994, a nine-judge Constitution Bench delivered the most consequential federalism ruling of the post-Kesavananda generation. The judgment held that the President's proclamation under Article 356 imposing President's Rule in a State is subject to judicial review; that secularism is part of the basic structure of the Constitution; that the dissolution of a State Legislative Assembly cannot precede Parliament's approval of the proclamation; and that a State Government that fails to act in accordance with the secular character of the Constitution can, on appropriate facts, be dismissed. A digest of the bench, the doctrinal holdings, and the architecture they leave.

Valkya Editorial··9 min