In a nation where the Constitution upholds democracy and guarantees fundamental rights to its citizens, frauds perpetuated by the governments –Central and/or State – vis-à-vis their fundamental rights are the worst kind of frauds. This is so because of the impact such frauds have on millions of its citizens. It is even more unfortunate when, even after many decades, ordinary citizens remain oblivious to the fact that their Constitution is being seriously undermined by those whose job it is to uphold it. Things appear legal but they are not.
The Indian Constitution which came into force on January 26, 1950, guarantees fundamental religious rights to its citizens under Articles 25 and 26. Article 25 gives every individual the right to profess, practice or propagate his or her religion. Article 26 is the fundamental right available to ‘every religious denomination’ to maintain and establish religious institutions; decide religious matters without any external interference; own and acquire properties and administer such properties in a lawful manner.
The Constitution bestows these rights equally to all, irrespective of ‘majority’ or ‘minority’ status. Unbelievable as it may sound, these rights have been denied only to the ‘majority’ i.e. the Hindus.
Almost every State Government in independent India has enforced special code or laws or Acts by which Hindu religious institutions viz. temples, mutts and charities (endowments) are controlled, if not fully administered, by the respective State Governments – leaving the Hindus and their communities, sects, etc to have no say in these matters.
THE TAMIL NADU EXAMPLE
Tamil Nadu is the Land of Temples. At least 400 temples here are more than 1000 years old – the icons and symbols of Sanatan Dharma. Before independence, Tamil Nadu was part of the ‘Madras Presidency’ which also comprised today’s northern Kerala, Lakshadweep, coastal Andhra, certain districts of Karnataka and even southern Odisha. It was in this Presidency that the first arbitrary law to control Hindu religious institutions was enacted. It was called the Madras Religious Endowments Act, 1926 (ACT II of 1927). This 1926 Act is the forefather of all the Religious Endowments Acts (meant only for Hindu institutions) which each State enacted in the “Republic of India”.
By 1935, the said 1926 Act was further amended and the administration of many large temples in the Presidency – particularly in the Tamil Nadu region – were taken over by the provincial government by “notifying” such temples in the Government Gazette. Some of the more prominent temples among the 50 temples thus taken over are:
The temples which had vast extent of lands and sites were targeted and taken over, ostensibly to ‘protect’ their properties and only to realise the due income therefrom. What happened was the reverse.
In 1951, the Madras Government enacted “the Madras Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act” which replaced the Religious Endowments Board with a government department called the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department.
The provincial and later the State Governments allowed the encroachments and hostile occupations of these lands for the sake of votes. Politicians kept coming to power at the cost of these temples and temple dharma. They never cared for the rights of the temples nor the rights of the temple worshippers who were never organised.
MADRAS HIGH COURT JUDGEMENT
On 13.12.1951, a division bench of the Madras High Court, headed by Justice Satyanarayana Rao and Justice Rajagopalan Iyengar, gave a landmark judgement in the 1st Shirur Mutt Case. By this judgement, about 20 Sections of the 1951 Act were struck down as unconstitutional and being against the fundamental rights of Hindus. The court declared the sections in the 1951 Act that allowed the takeover of temples by notifications as well as the equivalent sections in the 1926 Act as unconstitutional and void.
As a consequence, the Madras Government ought to have come out of the administration of about 50 prominent temples. They did not do so. The state government filed an appeal against the judgement before the Supreme Court.
1954 SHIRUR MUTT JUDGEMENT
In the 1954 Shirur Mutt judgement, the Supreme Court declared the notification sections in the 1951 Madras Act as unconstitutional and void. The Madras Government which did not come out of 50 prominent temples after the High Court order in 1951 ought to have handed over these temples to the communities that were administering them before their takeover, at least after the 1954 Shirur Mutt judgement. Even that did not happen.
Article 26 of the Constitution of India says
Subject to public order, morality and health, every religious denomination or any section thereof shall have the right—
(a) to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes;
(b) to manage its own affairs in matters of religion;
(c) to own and acquire movable and immovable property; and
(d) to administer such property in accordance with law.
What needs to be highlighted here is the continuing contemptuous disobedience to the judgements of the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court by the Government of Tamil Nadu for over 70 years including the Shirur Mutt Order.
In 1956, without any sense of shame or moral misgivings, the state government “extended” the notifications (which became non-existent when the very notification sections were held void) by Government Order No. 3069. This G.O. was challenged without success before the Madras High Court and later before the Supreme Court. In the meantime, the Madras Government enacted a new Act in 1959 in which the sections held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court were reintroduced and continue to be operational till date.
A four judge bench of the Supreme Court by its order dated 10.02.1965 quashed the said G.O. 3069 of 1956. The Tamil Nadu Government brought amendments to the 1959 Act stating that notwithstanding “any judgement of any court” the notifications will continue for another year. In December 1993, a Division Bench of the Madras High Court held that these amendments were made only to defeat the judgement of the Supreme Court and have to be necessarily struck down. An appeal against this order was dismissed by Supreme Court on 27.02.2002.
However, even after all these clear judgements of the courts, till date the Tamil Nadu Government has not relinquished control of the 50 notified temples that were taken over before 1951. This is not only contemptuous but a continuing fraud on the fundamental rights of Hindu devotees.
HINDI VERSION OF THE CONSTITUTION
In 1987, the Parliament adopted the Hindi version of the Constitution and further brought in Article 394-A in the Constitution by which both versions were declared to have equal meaning and standing. In the Hindi version, we find the words ‘‘प्रत्येक धार्मिक संप्रदाय’’ as the English equivalent of the term “every religious denomination”. The State Governments, in their laws relating to religious endowments, should define the term “Religious Denominations” for Hindus in line with the meaning found in the Hindi version of the Constitution – not borrow from the Oxford Dictionary. That would enable Hindus including Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists get their fundamental religious rights and the right to administer their institutions That even 36 years later this is not done, is the continuing fraud on all Hindu communities by the politicians, government officials and even the courts.
FRAUD AND MISMANAGEMENT
The Hindus of Tamil Nadu are oblivious to the consequences of such governmental frauds. Today, about 400 Tamil Nadu temples are being run by Government Executive Officers without any legally sustainable order ever issued by a competent authority appointing them under any of the enabling provisions of the Tamil Nadu HR&CE Act, 1959. There are no orders traceable for Sri Ramanathaswamy Temple, Rameswaram or Sri Kapaliswarar Temple, Mylapore, Chennai or for Sri Thayumanaswamy Temple, Tiruchirapalli. These are just examples of the massive scale of fraud perpetuated by the Government of Tamil Nadu for more than 70 years.
This is also a complete disregard of the provisions of Article 31-A(1)(b) of the Constitution which says only laws providing for a limited period of takeover of the management of a property would be valid.
It is estimated that more than 50,000 acres of valuable lands of Hindu temples and endowments have vanished under the government’s administration. These were Hindu spaces which have become ‘secular’ or even anti-Hindu spaces now. Instead of a fair income of Rs. 6000 crore per annum, Hindu temple properties are fetching only Rs. 200 crore under government management. To collect this Rs. 200 crore, an annual administration fees of around Rs. 270 crore and an audit fees of Rs. 90 crore is collected from the temples by the government which levies 12 per cent of the temple income as administration fees and 4 per cent as audit fees.
The audit of the temples is not an external audit. It is an internal audit by a wing of the State Government which has ZERO Chartered Accountants on its payroll. About 1.8 million audit objections made by these internal auditors are pending rectification from the year 1986.
The loss of about Rs. 6000 crore to Hindu temples, mutts and endowments in Tamil Nadu in a year would translate to a loss of at least 50,000 crore in 10 years. This is a colossal sum denied to Hindu citizens to profess, practice and propagate their religion. The potential annual income can help thousands of Hindu children get free education with Sanatan Dharma values. Hindus across Tamil Nadu will get quality health care free of cost in hospitals and clinics run by temples and mutts.
Is this state of affairs maintained to help the minority religions who run schools, colleges and hospitals catering to the majority Hindu population? The Hindu community needs to give due thought to this possibility and act accordingly.
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