Daijiworld Media Network - Karwar (SP)

Karwar, Oct 4: The Supreme Court, on Wednesday October 3, ordered status quo till further orders about the ownership of Lord Mahabaleshwara temple at Gokarna. As the order stated that status quo as at September 7 would prevail, the temple will remain with Sri Ramachandrapura Math.

The Math had filed contempt of court petition in the Supreme Court, accusing the state government of violating the interim order of the state high court which had ordered the temple management to be retained by the Math. A bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice A M Khanwilkar which heard the petition, on Wednesday, said that it would resume hearing of the case after four weeks.

Lord Mahabaleshwara temple at Gokarna, which is very ancient, finds mention in some of the epics and mythology. It is known as 'Dakshina Kashi', comparing it with Varanasi that is considered holy by Hindus. During the year 2008, the state government had handed over the temple to Ramachandrapura Math on the basis of old records, but the state high court, through an order passed on August 10 this year, had annulled the decision taken by the state government in 2008 about handing over the temple to Ramachandrapura Math. The Supreme Court, on September 7, had declined to stay the high court order and had asked all the persons involved with the petition to provide their opinion within eight weeks.

Advocate for the Math, Kapil Sibal, argued that the state government had understood the high court order retaining the temple with the Math as per its own convenience. He said that the order of the high court had been violated by the government.

Advocates for the state, Ranjith Kumar and Joseph Aristotle, said that the high court order handing over the temple to the government prevails as the Supreme Court had not stayed the high court order appointing a overseeing committee to manage the temple. They said that the administrative officer to the temple was appointed in August after the high court order. Justice A M Khanwilkar wanted to know from the advocate for the state government how did the government interpret the Supreme Court order to maintain status quo on September 7.

Math's counsel, Ejaz Maqbool, said that the Supreme Court had given the temple management back to the Math as the state government was wrong in interpreting the earlier order of the Supreme Court.