Supreme Court of India. | File image

New Delhi: Continuing the tirade against compulsory recitation of Sanskrit and Hindu hymns in Kendriya Vidyalayas, a Muslim body — Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind — has also jumped on to the bandwagon and filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India on Monday regarding the morning prayers and said that students are forced to join hands and recite Hindu prayers.

The body claims that this practice is unconstitutional. Though their petition has not been accepted by the Supreme Court, they have been given the liberty to advance their arguments as and when the apex court sets up the Consitution bench to hear the matter.

“The common prayer prescribed in Article 92 of Chapter 10 of the Revised Education Code for Kendriya Vidyalayas Sangathan is inspired from Hinduism. Even though such a prayer is not in consonance with many other faiths, all students, irrespective of their faith and belief, have to compulsorily recite the said prayer. Such recitation is supervised by teachers and on failure to recite the said prayer, the concerned student is reprimanded. Since the said common prayer is based on Hinduism, the members of the minority communities who are forced to recite the said prayer are aggrieved by the said provision,” the petition said.

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The Supreme Court had earlier in the day agreed to hear a petition challenging the compulsory recitation of Sanskrit and Hindu hymns in morning assembly sessions of 1,125 Kendriya Vidyalayas (KV) across the country. The apex court referred the matter to the five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court.

The petition was filed by lawyer Veenayak Shah, whose children had passed out of KV. In his petition, Shah urged the Supreme Court to ask the Kendriya Vidyalaya to “discontinue any form of prayer from the morning assembly or otherwise”. The petitioner has argued that making children begin their day by reciting prayers created “obstacles in developing a scientific temperament” among the students.

Shah said in the petition, “This practice creates a lot of obstacles in developing a scientific temperament among the students as the whole idea of God and religious faith is given immense priority and the same is instilled as a thought process among the students as well.”

As per Live Law, the petition further read, “Students, as a result, learn to develop an inclination towards seeking refuge from Almighty instead of developing a practical outcome towards the obstacles and hurdles faced in everyday life and spirit of enquiry and reform seems to be lost somewhere.”

The morning assemblies at more than 1,100 Kendriya Vidyalayas across the country begins with a prayer in Hindi and ends with a Sanskrit shloka. The practice has been going on in the schools since 1964.