BENGALURU: In a setback to the state government, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday struck down two amendments to the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments (Amendment) passed by the state government in 2011 and 2012.
A division bench of Justices Anand Byrareddy and S. Sujatha struck down the amended act in entirety, while citing it as discriminatory and violative of Constitutional Rights.
The court passed the judgment while hearing a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments (Amendment) Act 2011 (Act 22/2011) and Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments (Amendment) Act 2012. Several temple trusts had approached the court questioning the amendments to the Act, which the state government had claimed would protect the hereditary rights of archakas and trustees of temples, help form state and district-level dharmika parishats with powers to administer temples and settle disputes.
With the high court striking down the amendments to the Act, the State level Religious Council (Dharmika Parishat), which was empowered under the amended Act to resolve any disputes on religious practices, customs, traditions and various other issues, will automatically lose its powers.
The High Court on Tuesday observed, “The fact that the Apex Court has expressed in it order dated 24.3.15 that the Act would be in force till the disposal of the appeal pending before it, is not with reference to the 2011 or 2012 amended Acts, but in reference to Act 33 of 2001. Since we are in agreement with the views expressed by the Division Bench of this court in Shri Sahasra Lingeshwara case, our work was cut out to only address whether the legislative exercise by the state to repeatedly amend the Act has only resulted in reiterating the very provision which were held unconstitutional, the need for elaborate pleadings in that regard was hardly necessary."
Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.
