A Public Interest Litigation came up before the 3 Judges Bench of Supreme Court of India yesterday, praying ‘to stop the use of names and images of gods and goddesses for commercial exploitation’. The court dismissed the petition remarking that “You have raised the issue which concerns the faith of the people. This country has 33,000 crore gods. Sorry.”
The bench asked the Lawyer who appeared for the petitioner “A businessman can keep the name of Laxmi stores. Can he not name his daughter Laxmi? I like to worship that God. I want to put the name and I want to have the image of that particular God. How can somebody stop?” The bench felt that there is no need to stop anybody from using the name of a god or putting the image of any god on the nameplates or packaging as it is only reflective of his faith in that particular god and no one has right to question his right to have faith in that particular god. A follower of Lord Balaji can both name his son and carry his business in the name of Balaji, the bench opined holding that there is nothing wrong in using symbols of faith in business.
