AMN
The Delhi High Court today dismissed a plea seeking withdrawal of coins having religious symbols embossed on them, saying it does not dent the secular fabric of the country.
Two Delhi residents had filed a PIL seeking a direction to the RBI and the finance ministry to withdraw the coins brought out in 2010 and 2013 with images of Brihadeeswara Temple and Mata Vaishno Devi, respectively.
Rejecting the PIL, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said, “It does not dent the country’s secular fabric and secularism does not bar issuance of coins to commemorate any event.”
It observed that the petitioners were not able to support their argument that the act of issuing coins with religious figures was impacting religious practices.
“The decision to issue coins to commemorate an occasion is purely in the domain of the government under the Coinage Act, 2011,” the court said, adding there was no act of favouritism or discrimination by the government by directing minting of coins to commemorate a particular event under the Act.