Bijoe Emmanuel and Others v. State of Kerala and Others

Three siblings, including Bijoe Emmanuel (plaintiffs), were Jehovah’s Witnesses living in Kerala, India. Emmanuel believed that the Jehovah’s Witness faith prohibited participation in any ritual except for religious prayer. Consequently, each day at school when the Indian national anthem was sung during the morning assembly, Emmanuel and his two siblings respectfully stood but did not participate. In 1985, a member of the national assembly visited Emmanuel’s school and became upset that a child would not sing the national anthem. The legislature took the matter up with the national assembly, and a commission was established to investigate the situation. The commission concluded that the children were law abiding and showed no disrespect to the anthem. Nevertheless, the deputy inspector of schools instructed the school to expel Emmanuel and his siblings. Emmanuel’s father attempted to negotiate with the school to permit the attendance of his children. When his father’s efforts failed, Emmanuel and his siblings filed a writ petition seeking a court order to retrain the Kerala government (defendant) from preventing their attendance at school. Emmanuel’s writ was rejected by the Kerala High Court after the court performed a detailed analysis of the lyrics of the national anthem and found that there was not a single word in the anthem that could offend anyone’s religious beliefs. Emmanuel appealed to the India Supreme Court.