6.17.2. Description

Article 27 prohibits the State from spending any public money collected by way of tax for promotion of any religion. It is one of the essential consequences of secularism. The State cannot patronize any particular religion or religious denomination. In other words, the state should not spend the public money collected by way of tax for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion. This provision prohibits the state from favoring, patronizing and supporting one religion over the other. This means that the taxes can be used for the promotion or maintenance of all religions.

This provision prohibits only levy of a tax and not a fee. This is because the purpose of a fee is to control secular administration of religious institutions and not to promote or maintain religion. Thus a fee can be levied on pilgrims to provide them some special service or safety measures. Similarly, a fee can be levied on religious endowments for meeting the regulation expenditure.

Note: In 2012, the Supreme Court directed the Union government to gradually reduce and abolish Haj subsidy in 10 years and invest the amount in education and other measures for social development of the minority community.