SC assures justice to Sikh lawyer alleging humiliation for carrying 'holy knife'

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday assured a Mumbai-based Sikh lawyer that it would look into his complaint against security officers who denied him entry into the apex court premises with a kirpan.

The lawyer said the Constitution guarantees him the freedom of practising the religion and he has been "humiliated, insulted, tortured" every time he visited the apex court as the security officers did not allow him to carry kirpan inside. "We will certainly look into it," a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi told lawyer Amritpal Singh Khalsa, who mentioned his complaint for redressal.

The lawyer sought directions to the security department to ensure that young Sikh lawyers like him are not "humiliated and insulted" and are allowed to wear and carry a kirpan in court premises.

In his complaint, Khalsa said that the security guards denied him entry citing his kirpan's length was more than what was permitted, though there is no restriction on its size under the law. "Every time I enter the apex court I am humiliated, made to feel as I am an untouchable. I am denied entry to court premises just because I carry a kirpan for which the security denies entry citing its length to be more than six inches," Khalsa said.