Why Religious books are kept inside the Court in secular country like India? How an Atheist take oath on it?

Your question gives me an idea. In a secular country like India, if the witness is an Indian, he can be asked to take oath on the flag of India or on the book of Constitution of India. How are MPs and MLAs taking oath? The same procedure can be followed.

@ Ramasubran

Since you stated that I have misunderstood the meaning of the word "secular", I referred to the dictionary and found the meaning of the word as under.

"of or pertaining to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred; temporal: secular interests.

2. not pertaining to or connected with religion ( opposed to sacred): secular music.

3. (of education, a school, etc.) concerned with nonreligious subjects.

4. (of members of the clergy) not belonging to a religious order; not bound by monastic vows ( opposed to regular)".

Nowhere is it stated that secular means tolerant to religions.

I do not know about how MPs or MLAs take oath in India. May be you are right. I shall try to find out from the net the practice of taking oath in other countries.

EDIT:

I have investigated this point further and found that the old Indian Oaths Act of the Britishers has been replaced by the new Indian Oaths Act in 1969 which allows witnesses to give affirmations in place of "oath in the name of God" which takes care of the objection of the asker. I quote from the following link.

"Oath

Oath is swearing by the name of God. Oath has more religious persuasion. On the other hand, affirmation is non-religious and secular in nature. Many people have objections in swearing oath and as a result the provision of affirmation instead of oath has been incorporated in accordance with the recommendation of the Indian Law Commission in the Oaths Act 1969. Because of affirmation there has now been uniformity in the form to be adopted in the matter of any oath, affirmation, affidavit etc. in the courts throughout the country."

I hope this settles the matter and that there is no further scope of discussion between the participants of YA in this regard.

Edit:

The Indian Oaths Act, 1969 is a short 4-page Act according to which, one can either take oath and state "I do swear in the name of God" or give an affirmation stating "I do solemnly affirm".

The Act is available in the following link.

http://johnsong7.com/Revenue%20Manual%201/johnson%...

Madhukar and Aparna made a point; but MPs and MLAs also take oath in the name of God and not on the Inidan Constirution or the Flag. Secular is not absence of religion but tolerance of all religions equally. So it is not a good argument that 'secular' India should not have religious books in the Court for affirmations. Bhagwad Gita, Bible and Koran are availabale for selection by the witness to take oath. The word 'secular' has been sufficiently misunderstood and misinterpreted in our country.

Religion is basically a type of Faith and Belief. The person who takes oath, if a believer, shall respect and shall speak the truth and truth only, whatever could be inside the cover. Taking oath is a process, where the person's conscious is revoked, using the holy books, to get the truth. If this person would have no respect for such Religeous symbols, he shall have no respect for Penal codes too. What shall we do? Scrap the Judicial systems too. Rational thinking should provide systems that will give justice and equality to everyone, rather than criticise the existing systems, to be rated as superior. Your Logic only questions the faith and the prevailing systems rather than giving a solution.

The person taking the oath can choose what oath they take and what book they take it on. A secular oath is always an option. The only legal requirement is that either the person affirm that they will tell the truth or that they acknowledge that they can be charged with perjury if their testimony is intentionally false.

A sufficient secular oath would be: "I swear that the testimony I am about to give will be truthful and is given under penalty of perjury." If you don't like the word "swear", you can use the word "affirm".

There are many many religious texts.In the court the book of faith one believes in and is born into is given for oath-taking with the intention that none dares to utter falsehood keeping one's hand on the book of faith.An atheist is not required to take an oath on any book of faith.The winess can tell the judge about his/her faith.

Secularism is not blocking religeous beliefs, it is only respecting all Religeons. A judge can ask the details like the persons Religeon, if that is going to help the process of LAW. Judges are also covered by the Procedure codes only. They are not expected to give the judgement on their own preferences.

Secularism demands the judge not to support a person on the basis of his Religeous belief, but allows him to respect the Religeon of the contenders.

Atheism or Theism, atheist or theist not a matter before law. The said Atheism, and Theism is only a principle in life followed by the humans. When a law comes, all are equal before law. The law will never see the human principles. The principles of atheist or theist is a personal matter. The man will never get fear on anyone. Atleast the man can swear on a sacred book is the motivation to keep religious books in a court. How an atheist come with several arguments over a sacred book, or holy books ? He is reading. when a person reading a book means he gives priority to the book. When a book taking priority means it is getting importance. While a book getting importance means it is only a sacred book. If it is a sacred book means it is only a religious book.

@Asker, i read shri Madhukar sir answer after giving my answer. The Answer given by shri Madhukar sir is most meaningful and worth appreciation to your question and i think that answer is fittest answer to your question than my answer.

you can actually pick which book you want to take the oath on, my friend made the oath on the gospel of the flying spaghetti monster.

because a nation without official religion should be away from religious books

Aethist will say nature, luck etc. If u ask them what is it, they will give the explanation for God.