Supreme Court Judge, Justice Abhay S Oka on Monday said that ‘Pooja Archana’ should not be performed at premises of the judiciary.

He made the remarks while attending a ‘Bhoomi Poojan’ ceremony organised in Pune, in light of the inauguration of a new district court building.

“We have to stop doing pooja Archana or lighting lamp kind of rituals during any events related to Judiciary. Instead we should keep the Preamble of the Constitution and bow down to it to start any event. We need to start this new thing to respect our constitution and it’s value,” he was quoted as saying by LawBeat.

Justice BR Gavai, who is also a Supreme Court judge, agreed with Justice Oka and said that his brother judge had indeed given a good suggestion. “Instead of performing pooja of a specific religion we should mark the foundation with a spade. We should inaugurate the event by watering the plants instead of the lamp lighting ceremony as suggested by our colleague Anil Killore. It will definitely send out a good message to society in terms of environment,” Justice Gavai said.