Which constitutional value is violated if school morals are based on one…

Concept

Secularism is one of the values the Preamble declares for the Indian State — the word “SECULAR” was written into it by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976. It means the State has no religion of its own and keeps equal distance from every faith: it may neither adopt, endorse nor promote the doctrines of one religion, nor penalise any other. Article 28(1) applies the same neutrality to education, barring religious instruction in an educational institution wholly maintained out of State funds.

Application to this situation

A school that builds its moral teaching on the tenets of a single religion is no longer keeping equal distance from all faiths. It sets one community’s doctrine as the moral standard for every child in the classroom, including children of other faiths and of none. That preference for one religion is exactly what the secular character of the Constitution forbids the State to show. In education the Constitution gives this a concrete form through Article 28, whose reach depends on how the institution is funded: Article 28(1) bars religious instruction outright in an institution wholly maintained out of State funds, while Article 28(3) protects a pupil in a State-recognised or State-aided institution from being required to take part in religious instruction or worship without consent. The value breached is therefore secularism — state neutrality in matters of religion.

Contrasting the other constitutional values

• Economic justice belongs to the Preamble’s promise of “JUSTICE, social, economic and political”. It governs the fair distribution of wealth, resources and material opportunity, so it is engaged by questions of fees, funding or access to means — not by the religious content of moral instruction.

• Equality, in the sense of gender inclusion, rests on Articles 14 and 15 and addresses differential treatment on the ground of sex — for example, unequal enrolment, participation or facilities for girls and boys.

• Liberty of thought and expression is the Preamble’s and Article 19(1)(a)’s guarantee to the individual: a person’s freedom to form and voice opinions. It speaks to what a student or teacher may say, rather than to the duty of neutrality the institution itself owes among religions.

Result

The constitutional value violated is the principle of secularism, which requires state neutrality in matters of religion.