Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru (DC)

Bengaluru, Aug 11: An order by the then B S Yeddyurappa-led BJP government dated August 12, 2008, denotifying Gokarna Mahabaleshwara Temple from the control of department of Muzrai and handing over its administration to Ramachandrapura Math, has been quashed by the High Court.

The order was quashed by the a division bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Aravind Kumar of the High court on Friday August 10 stating that state has no power to do so and that order passed is illegal and arbitrary. The court has ordered that the temple to continue to be listed among the notified temples under the Muzrai department.

The state government has been asked to form an overseeing committee headed by the Uttara Kannada deputy commissioner (DC) which will come into effect from September 10. The DC has been directed to collect inventory details of movable assets and bank records of the temple and submit it before the court in two weeks time.

The decade-old dispute has finally come to an end. The BJP government had justified the order saying that the temple had been under the control of one individual for five decades and had seen no development. The JD(S) and Congress had termed the handover as vote bank politics and unwarranted.

Gokarna Mahabaleshwara Temple trustee Balachandra Deekshith and others had approached the court on the issue.