Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Sep 25: The state high court has sought clarification from the state government about its decision to transfer about Rs 12.38 crore from different muzrai temples to the chief minister's relief fund. It wants to know why temples alone have been selected for parting with their funds, excluding worship centres of other religions. Observing that prima facie this is not the right initiative, it has desired to know the basis on which the amount was fixed for individual temples.

A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice, Dinesh Maheshwari, and Justice S G Pandith, which heard a public interest litigation filed by Prema Naidu from Kalyanagara and Dr V R Sampath from Sarakki here, adjourned the hearing to Wednesday September 26 before directing the public prosecutor to provide an explanation about the basis on which this order was issued.

"Why did you choose temples alone and excluded prayer centres of other religions? Again, how did you choose only 81 temples? How was the amount to be paid by individual temples decided? On the face of it, this does not seem to be a proper initiative," the court said in its oral observations. It noted that the order has two parts, one of which is open special counters in temples to collect financial assistance to the flood-affected people. This, it said, may be acceptable to all. The second part refers to the transfer of donation amount to the relief fund. Observing that this is a tricky issue which might not be acceptable to one and all, it said this might create further problems and many questions might crop up out of this step.

The Chief Justice also wanted to know on the basis of which law the order to transfer funds has been issued.

Earlier, advocate for the petitioners said that the government has ordered 81 notified temples under muzrai department to transfer Rs 12.3 crore to the chief minister's relief fund as per the order dated August 21, 2018. He argued that this is an illegal action based on unilateral decision, duly claiming that this has hurt the sentiments of devotees of these temples.