God or Goddess can be used for marketing purposes

God can be used for marketing purposes:

No bar on use of images of icons in commercial activity

New Delhi : There can be no bar on use of pictures of gods and goddesses for commercial products, the Supreme Court said on Friday, dismissing a petition that sought such a ban.

"There are 33,000 crore gods and goddesses and everybody is to free to have their image. How can we say that there should be no image of God for the whole country?" Chief Justice HL Dattu said, declining to entertain a PIL to stop such commercial exploitation of religious icons.

The petitioner had contended that he was "aggrieved" that pictures of Gods were printed on puja articles, food items, spices, medicines and clothes.

"It is a case of faith," the 3-judge bench observed while making it clear that citizens cannot be restrained from carrying their business activity in the name of any God or Goddess, in which they have belief.

"A businessman can name his shop Laxmi stores. Can he not name his daughter Laxmi?" the bench asked the lawyer who was arguing otherwise.

Further, the Bench asked why a person should be stopped from naming the God or putting the image of any God on the nameplate or packaging.

"I like to worship that God. I want to put the name and I want to have the image of that particular God.

How can somebody stop that? Also, why should we restrain people from using a picture of God?" the Bench said.

The court said businessmen may feel if they had God's pictures on their products, it would help their business. "This relates to the faith of the people. 

People worship Lord Balaji. Can we say don't worship Balaji? How can we say that he should not have the image of Balaji on his product? Suppose the businessman has an image of Balaji on his key chain, can we say don't put such images on the key chain?" the Chief Justice said.

So, a person who is a follower of Lord Balaji can name his son and carry his business in the name of Balaji. "You have raised an issue which concerns the faith of people. This country has 33,000 crores of gods. Sorry, the petition is dismissed" the Bench said.