Supreme Court And Modi Government’s Failure On Temple Freedom Exposes Their Weakness

The Supreme Court has not covered itself with glory by remitting a petition challenging state control of Hindu religious institutions and temples to various high courts after sitting on these petitions for more than a decade.

Among others, the late Swami Dayananda Saraswati had filed a petition in 2012 seeking relief, but now every petition will have to be fought separately in the high courts of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Over 1,00,000 temples are under state control in these southern states.

This is quite simply political and judicial cowardice of the highest order, for the Union government’s Assistant Solicitor General, KM Nataraj, is quoted as saying: “It is a state subject; the state has to regulate. I don’t think the Union can do much in the matter.”

This is misleading, for entry 28 in the concurrent list says both centre and states can legislate on “Charities and charitable institutions, charitable and religious endowments and religious institutions”.

With Chandrababu Naidu as an ally, and with Andhra Pradesh hosting one of the richest temples in India (Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams, or TTD), the Centre is in no mood to stand up for Hindu rights so that TTD and other southern temples can be freed from state control. Tamil Nadu, which has the bulk of the temples under state control, heads for the polls next year, and once again the BJP is in no mood to take up cudgels on behalf of Hindus.

In its order, the bench headed by Justices BV Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma, had this to say: “We find that the better way of ventilating the grievances of the petitioners is to assail the provisions of the respective (Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments) Acts before the respective jurisdictional high courts, so as to enable the high courts to better appreciate the dimensions of the challenge.”

Really? How come this little bit of wisdom did not strike the Supreme Court 13 years earlier when Swami Dayananda Saraswati was knocking at its doors? By sending the petitions back to the high courts, and with the additional piece of advice that the high courts can consider “socio-economic, cultural, and religious aspects, and may even constitute an expert committee for assistance if required”, the Supreme Court has damaged the faith of millions of Hindus in judicial remedies.

The bench has essentially added insult to injury by suggesting that the high courts can take many different factors into account for deciding a simple issue: whether governments can control religious institutions? Looking beyond this basic issue means that the high courts can use red herrings to delay justice and help states retain control of temples. No one bothers to ask why mosques and churches should be excluded from this heavenly piece of wisdom from the highest court of the land. 

The high courts, which will cock one reverential eye towards their respective state governments, will use the advice to set up expert committees, which will delay any possibility of a resolution over the next decade, after which the cases will again come to the Supreme Court on one plea or the other. Why will the high courts act with alacrity when their boss, the Supreme Court, has been sitting on these petitions for more than a decade, only to lob the issue to them? They have got the message: Hindu rights can wait.

The worst hypocrisy comes from the Modi government’s Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta, who gratuitously noted after the hearing was over, that  “Principally, temples can never be under the control of the government. If religion has no business in governance, governance has no business in religion. As simple as that. Temples are not departments of the government.”

If that is what he truly believed, why didn’t he advise his junior ASG to make the same point instead of claiming that it is better decided by the high courts.

This is a copout by both the judiciary and the Modi government. The can has been kicked down the road. Hindus in Hindu Rashtra may not get justice for another generation.