Alberta Hutterites have lost their fight to be exempted from a law making digital photos mandatory for drivers to get new licences in the province.

The Hutterites, a Christian sect that believes being photographed violates their faith and way of life, have been allowed to carry special driving permits since 1974 - the year the government introduced photo licences.

But the Supreme Court of Canada ruled 4-3 on Friday to uphold provincial rules that went into effect in 2003 that make a digital photo universally mandatory for all new licences.

"The goal of setting up a system that minimizes the risk of identity theft associated with drivers' licences is a pressing and important public goal," Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote.

"The universal photo requirement is connected to this goal and does not limit freedom (of) religion more than required to achieve it."

When Alberta offered the Hutterites a comprise in 2003 allowing permits without photos - with the proviso that photos must still be taken for a database - the Hutterites refused.

The Hutterites believe being photographed violates the second of the Ten Commandments forbidding idolatry.

McLachlin said those who won't comply with the rules could always hire drivers.

"Many businesses and individuals rely on hired persons and commercial transport for their needs, either because they cannot or choose not to drive," she wrote

McLachlin was joined in the majority by Justices Ian Binnie, Marie Deschamps and Marshall Rothstein.

Lawyers for the colony argued there was a lack of evidence to show that the special permits granted to Hutterites somehow constituted a security threat.

And Justice Rosalie Abella agreed, in a passionately-written dissent which was backed by Justices Louis LeBel and Morris Fish. She even suggested the majority ruling lets the Alberta government off the hook without proving religious rights were justifiably infringed.

"There is no evidence that in the context of several hundred thousand unphotographed Albertans, the photos of approximately 250 Hutterites will have any discernable impact on the province's ability to reduce identity theft," Abella wrote.

Abella said the security benefit of mandatory photos is slight, compared to the impact on a traditional community that was exempted for almost 30 years.

The result "imperils and contradicts human rights jurisprudence," Abella said.

The judgment on Friday overturns past victories by the Hutterites before the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench, which struck down the photo rules as unconstitutional -- and a majority of the Alberta Court of Appeal which agreed.

The Hutterites believe that having their photo taken violates this biblical commandment: "You shall not make for yourself a carved image -- any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth."

The Hutterites are one of three major sectarian groups -- the others being Mennonites and the Amish -- in Canada. They live a communal form of existence, the main tenets which were established under the initial leadership of Jacob Hutter.

Hutterites fled Russia, as well as parts of the U.S., for Canada in the early 20th Century to escape harassment and persecution.