Supreme Court He did not support government control over temples and clarified that he had already laid out his own interpretation of the constitutional provisions that enable states to manage the secular activities of religious institutions.
During the faith versus fundamental rights arguments before a nine-judge bench led by CJI Surya Kant, senior lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayanan said SG Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, and AM Singhvi, senior counsel for the Travancore Devaswom Board that manages the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple, had given a special interpretation of Articles 25 and 26 because the government wanted to control the temples.
Mehta sought permission from the bench to refute Sankaranarayanan’s interpretation of his arguments and said, “The government does not want to control temples at all and what he mentioned was entirely the constitutional interpretation of Article 25(1)(A), which empowers the state to manage the economic, political and secular activities of any religion.”
Justice Amanullah asked Mehta whether his “government should not control temples” argument was limited to Hindu religious institutions. The SG said that when courts and lawyers were engaged in the interpretation of constitutional provisions, they “cannot be viewed through a Hindu, Muslim, Christian or any other religious lens”.
Justice Bagchi said the interpretation should be from a citizen’s perspective. The SG said he had given an overview of the diversity in Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and other sects.
In Kerala, several state government-supervised bodies, including the Travancore, Cochin, Malabar, Guruvayur and Kudalamanikyam Devaswom boards, control about 3,000 temples. In Tamil Nadu, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department controls over 30,000 temples. In Andhra Pradesh, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Trust Board controls the Tirupati Balaji temple. In Karnataka, the Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Department manages temples. Chardham Devasthanam Board manages the Badrinath and Kedarnath temples in Uttarakhand.
