Will Supreme Court order also cover other places of worship?

By passing guidelines to the Union of India and others for proper management of religious shrines in W.P (Civil) No. 649/2018 a division bench of the Supreme Court has, indeed, done a yeoman service to the humble, submissive and innocent devotees in the country.

Responding to the petition filed by Ms Mrinalini Padhi, the vacation bench comprising Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Ashok Bhushan observed: “The issue of public importance highlighted in this petition relates to the difficulties faced by the visitors to Shri Jagannath Temple at Puri, and their harassment or exploitation by the Sevaks of the temple.

It is also pointed out that the environment of the surroundings is not hygienic as it ought to be. There are encroachments. It is also mentioned that there are deficiencies in the management of the Shrine. Rituals are commercialised.”

Indeed, the issue raised in the petition involves enforcement of fundamental right under Article 25 and Directive Principles under Articles 38,49 and 251 A(f) and (g) of the Constitution of India.

After hearing the Counsels of the parties, the Court issued the following directions:
i. The District Judge, Puri, may give a report on factual aspects of (a) Difficulties faced by the visitors, (b) Exploitative practices, if any (c) Deficiencies in the management, if any; and (d) Suggestions, if any.
The Court directed the District Judge, Puri, to submit an interim report by June 30.
ii. The Court also directed the Administrator to review the arrangement of CCTV cameras already installed. Apart from the installation of more CCTV cameras at appropriate locations, footage thereof should be viewed by an independent committee at suitable intervals and the report thereof be given to the District Judge, Puri, once in every month, so that the District Judge may issue any direction in this regard, if necessary.
iii. The Administrator may also ensure that no direct collection of offerings is made by any Sevak and all the offerings either in hundi or otherwise are deposited and accounted for and properly utilised. They should not go into the individual pockets of the Sevaks/attendants who may be given their due remuneration as per rules. To ensure this, the help of CCTV cameras and its footage or other steps may be explored.
iv. The court directed the State of Orissa to constitute forthwith a committee which may study the management schemes in other important shrines such as Vaishno Devi, Somnath temple, Golden Temple, Amritsar, Tirupati temple, Dharamsthala (Karnataka) Temple and suggest such changes as may be considered necessary. The committee may also give its interim report by June 30, 2018.
v. The court also directed that since these issues may be common to various other important shrines in the country, the Union of India is directed to constitute committee to collect information with regard to such other shrines, so that the management practices therein can be reviewed for the benefit of all visitors, wherever necessary.
vi. It is of prime importance that all the visitors have hassle-free visits and the offerings made are utilised for righteous objects and not misappropriated in any manner by the staff/ Sevaks. Of course, the staff/ Sevaks ought to be duly compensated by the legitimate remuneration as may be determined by the authority concerned. The issue of hygiene and encroachment also need be considered. Exploitative practices have to be timely stopped.

The Court appointed Gopal Subramanium, senior counsel as Amicus Curiae to assist the Court and adjourned the matter to July 5 for further consideration.

The intervention of the apex court is timely and laudable. Today, when our umpteen number of places of faith are sadly plagued by mismanagement, corruption and exploitation of the faithful, this initiative by the highest court of the land is a welcome move in the right direction.

Having said so, let us also not exempt shrines of other religious faiths as the issues highlighted by the Supreme Court are common to all the religious places. The apex court, in fact, has shown the strong stand to set right prevailing malpractices in the places of worship of all religions, otherwise the good move has the potential to blow up as a discriminatory one and ultimately erupting into major controversy.

HC verdict on SEC 122 of IPC
Dismissing the bail petition filed under Section 439 of CrPC by an alleged member of terror group Babbar Khalsa International, the Punjab and Haryana High Court recently observed that inciting people on social media might also amount to mounting an attempt at waging war against the government.

The court. while agreeing with the contention of the State that even collecting men, and not necessarily arms and ammunition, would amount to attempting to wage a war against the government.

Section 122 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) deals with collecting arms, etc, with intention of waging war against the Government of India. The Section reads: “Whoever collects men, arms or ammunition or otherwise prepares to wage war with the intention of either waging or being prepared to wage war against the Government of India, shall be punished with imprisonment for life or imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

Taking note of the social media posts of the accused, Arvinder Singh, and the responses received on such posts, Justice Sudip Ahluwalia observed, “... here the incitement is on Social Media directly accessible all over the World simultaneously, and not just in a limited crowded place, such as the one in which the slogans were shouted.”

And added “It can therefore, be safely held that the Petitioner by way of collecting ‘men’, with the intention of either waging or being prepared to wage war against the Government of India, would be liable under Section 122 of the IPC, which is punishable at par with Section 121-A of IPC itself, for which he is already facing trial.”

Hope, this Judgement of the High Court would forewarn all the terrorist groups and extremist and anti-national elements including the Tukde Tukde gangs of the consequences of their misadventures.

Relief to home buyers
In a major relief to the home buyers across the country, the President has promulgated the Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018 on June 6, 2018.

The home buyers will now be recognised as financial creditors which would give them due representation in the Committee of Creditors, and would also enable them to initiate corporate insolvency resolution process under Section 7 of the Insolvency Code (IBC) against errant developers. The Ordinance is also expected to benefit Micro, Small and Medium Sector Enterprises (MSMEs).