Freedom of religious worship is guaranteed under Section 8, Article IV of the 1973

Constitution, thus:
No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without
discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No religious test shall be required for
the exercise of civil or political rights.

Elucidating on the meaning and scope of freedom of religion, the U.S. Supreme Court
in Cantwell v. Connecticut 2said:
The constitutional inhibition on legislation on the subject of religion has a double aspect. On
the one hand, it forestalls compulsion by law of the acceptance of any creed or the practice of
any form of worship. Freedom of conscience and freedom to adhere to such religious
organization or form of worship as the individual may choose cannot be restricted by law. On
the other hand, it safeguards the free exercise of the chosen form of religion. Thus the
amendment embraces two concepts-freedom to believe and freedom to act. The first is
absolute, but in the nature of things, the second cannot be.

The realm of belief and creed is infinite and limitless bounded only by one’s
imagination and thought. So is the freedom of belief, including religious belief,
limitless and without bounds. One may believe in most anything, however strange,
bizarre and unreasonable the same may appear to others, even heretical when
weighed in the scales of orthodoxy or doctrinal standards. But between the freedom
of belief and the exercise of said belief, there is quite a stretch of road to travel. If the
exercise of said religious belief clashes with the established institutions of society and with
the law, then the former must yield and give way to the latter. The government steps
in and either restrains said exercise or even prosecutes the one exercising it.
(Emphasis supplied)