Karnataka HC quashes order appointing administrator to Murugha Mutt

The high court on Monday quashed the appointment of retired IAS officer P S Vastrad as the administrator of Murugharajendra Mutt, Chitradurga and its educational institutions.

Justice Krishna S Dixit said that the state government cannot interfere in the affairs of Mutt in the absence of legislative authorisation. However, the court has allowed the administrator to continue for a period of four weeks.

“In the peculiar circumstances of the case, the Administrator shall continue for a short period of six weeks only with no power to take any major decision that would have repercussions beyond the said period and, that he shall manage only the day to day affairs; The above interim arrangement has been made so that the devotees of the Mutt and the prominent members of the community concerned would pool their wisdom and virtue to devise an appropriate plan of action for the due administration and management of the affairs of Mutt and the educational institutions run under its aegis, on a war footing,” Justice Krishna Dixit said.

The petitions were filed by Jagdguru Murugharajendra Vidya Peetha and three devotees of the mutt challenging the December 13, 2022 government order. The order was passed in exercise of the power under Articles 162 and 31A of the constitution. The government had appointed the administrator after the pontiff Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru was sent to judicial custody on September 1, 2022 on criminal cases under the Pocso Act.

The petitioners contended that law does not prohibit a pontiff in detention from exercising administration through his delegates. It was submitted that the pontiff continued to manage through one Basavaprabhu Swamiji and also through a retired district judge.

On the other hand, the government said that when the pontiff is in custody, he will not be in a position to discharge his temporal duties relating to administration and management of the Mutt and the educational institutions. It was further argued that the Mutt having wealth of more than Rs 1,000 crore, as of prudence and necessity, requires a full time administrator.

“The fact that the government has allotted some land to the Mutt and handed some funds, per se, would not justify its interference, especially when the terms and conditions subject to which that has been done do not authorize action of the kind. Had the government indicated its intent to condition the grant of such a bounty, the Mutt would have had an opportunity to decline the offer,” Justice Krishna Dixit said.

The court said that despite confinement, pontiff continues to be Peethaadhipati of Mutt and what should happen in his absence is ordinarily be left to the devotees or the prominent members of the community concerned. “If civil society fails in its endeavours, let it fail; however, that cannot justify interference of the Government in the affairs of Mutt in the absence of legislative authorization. The doctrine of parents patriae, is not invocable in cases like this,” the court said.