Chief Justice of High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, Justice Pankaj Mithal, today said that India has a distinction of being called as the ‘Spiritual Capital’ of the world.“India’s cultural milieu is the cosmos of pure spirituality which discourages distinguishing humans on the basis of religion”, Chief Justice maintained.The Chief Justice remarked this during an event themed ‘Dharma and The Constitution of India' organized by a Delhi based organization Adhivakta Parishad, J&K and Ladakh chapter to commemorate the 72nd Constitution Day.The function was also attended by Advocate General, DC Raina and Additional Solicitor General of J&K High Court and dozens of other advocates and legal luminaries.In his keynote address, Justice Mithal maintained that our endeavor should be to exercise the fundamental duties instead for asking the rights only. He said that religion is synonymous to righteousness and every religion leads to the moral conduct in life. He further defined that religious scriptures acted as a guiding principle in discerning the right from wrong and codal law also enshrines same in it. He asked for formulating laws as per the needs of the society and not after looking up to the west.
Justice Mithal mentioned that Vedas constitute the law of nature and it is morality and good conduct that makes one religious. Elaborating, he said that both the Mahabharta and ‘Ahimsa’ of Gautam Buddha convinces people to adopt highest articles of faith and virtue. He said that since times immemorial under every rule Indian people have upheld the sacred beliefs of spirituality without interfering in personal articles of faith of other individuals. He said that this secularism has continuously been carried to this day by our nation in its true spirit although the words were added to our Constitution later through an amendment.Advocate General said that religion has not been sidelined by our constitution instead it has preserved its exercise by people from every sect. He said that Articles 14, 19, 21, 25-29 gives us insights about religious guarantees in our Constitution.He said that India has the most flexible Constitution that has preserved sensitivities of all peoples of this nation. He said that it is for this fact that it has been ammended more than 100 times till now despite being the most voluminous and elaborate one. He said that the Ayodhta verdict, Shah Bano Case, Triple Talaq, Vaishno Devi Temple issue are some of the striking examples where Constitution guided us towards respectable solutions.Others who spoke on the occasion included Additional Solicitor General of India (ASGI), Srinagar, Tahir Shamsi; ASGI, Jammu, Vikas Sharma and other office bearers of the AdhivaktaParishad.