Rajya Sabha member and senior lawyer Fali S Nariman today criticised the Gujarat government's decision to declare a 'restricted holiday' on Good Friday, calling the move a disgrace to citizens of the country.

"What is the use of having dreams of achieving double-digit growth," Nariman said at a national conference on reinventing Indian legal systems for achieving double-digit economic growth, "if the feelings of the minorities are suppressed?"

Nariman, who is also president of the Bar Association of India, said the 'hate phenomenon' will destroy the possibility of achieving high growth.

But Justice Rajendra Babu of the Supreme Court said too many holidays could hamper the ambitious plans for double-digit economic growth. "If communities want holidays for all their special days," he pointed out, "it will result in delay of justice as courts will be left with fewer days to decide cases."

Justice Rajendra Babu, Justice A R Lakshmanan, and Justice G P Mathur had in an order on Thursday warned against mixing religion with education and dismissed a petition seeking postponement of the entrance test for the 15 per cent all-India medical seats quota because it has been scheduled on Easter Sunday.

Referring to that order, Justice Babu said, "Such petitioners will be doing a great service by attending the exams as well as the Mass on Easter Sunday and by not indulging in such kind of litigation."