Appoint archakas as per Agamas: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday held that appointment of archakas in the temples in Tamil Nadu under the control of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Board has to be made strictly in accordance with Agama Shastras governing such appointments.

Agamas are treatises pertaining to matters like construction of temples; installation of idols and conduct of worship of the deity. The Agamas also contain other prescriptions including who is to perform temple rituals, who is entitled to worship and from which portion of the temple.

Some of the Agamas do incorporate a fundamental religious belief of the necessity of performance of the Poojas by archakas belonging to a particular and distinct sect / group / denomination, failing which, there will be defilement of deity requiring purification ceremonies.

A Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N.V. Ramana gave this ruling while disposing of a batch of petitions filed by an association of archakas and individual archakas of Sri Meenakshi Amman temple of Madurai, challenging a G.O. brought by the Tamil Nadu government in May 2006.

A supreme court Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N.V. Ramana gave the ruling on the appointment of archakas to be as per Agama Shastras while disposing of a batch of petitions filed by an association of archakas and individual archakas of Sri Meenakshi Amman temple of Madurai, challenging a G.O. brought by the Tamil Nadu government in May 2006.

According to the G.O. any person who is a Hindu and possessing the requisite qualification and training can be appointed as an archaka in Hindu temples. This was followed by an ordinance and both were stayed by the apex court and hence it was not given effect to.

As the court has not held whether the G.O. is valid or not, it will be open to the government to contend that appointments can be made as per the G.O. as long as such appointments are in conformity with Agama shastras. And whenever a dispute is raised questioning the appointment, the issue has to be decided as per the facts of that case, the bench added. A determination of the contours of a claimed custom or usage would be imperative and it is in that light that the validity of the impugned G.O. will have to be decided in each case and the necessity of seeking specific judicial verdicts in the future is inevitable and unavoidable.

Disposing of the petitions, the Bench said that the freedom of religion under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution is not only confined to beliefs but extends to religious practices also would hardly require reiteration. Right of belief and practice is guaranteed by Article 25 subject to public order, morality and health and other provisions of Part III of the Constitution.

A plain reading of the aforesaid provision i.e. Article 16(5), fortified by the debates that had taken place in the Constituent Assembly, according to us, protects the appointment of archakas from a particular denomination, if so required to be made, by the Agamas holding the field, the Bench said.

Writing the judgment Justice Gogoi said “the exclusion of some and inclusion of a particular segment or denomination for appointment as archakas would not violate Article 14 of the Constitution so long such inclusion / exclusion is not based on the criteria of caste, birth or any other constitutionally unacceptable parameter. So long as the prescription(s) under a particular Agama or Agamas is not contrary to any constitutional mandate, the impugned G.O. dated 23.05.2006 has the potential of falling foul of the dictum laid down in the Constitution bench verdict in Seshammal case.’

 

 

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