Karnataka - Bangalore

Court quashes State appeal on Datta Peetha

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Monday, dismissed the State Government’s appeal relating to the contentious Shree Guru Datta Peetha in Bababudan Giri in Chikmagalur district.

A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Deepak Verma and Justice A.S. Bopanna passed the order while upholding a single judge order of February 14, 2007. The single judge had allowed a petition by the Guru Datta Peetha Devasthana Samvardhane Trust and directed the Commissioner of Religious and Charitable Endowments to hear all parties, including the trust, before passing orders on religious practices being followed at the Shree Guru Datta Peetha before 1978. The trust, in its petition, had moved the High Court against a 1989 order of the Commissioner of Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowment. The trust termed as unilateral the 1989 order and said that the Commissioner had passed the order after hearing the peer of the shrine.

The single judge had asked the Endowment Commissioner to hold an inquiry and hear the public, the members of the trust and devotees before passing an order according to the provisions of the Endowment Act. He had remanded the matter back to the Commissioner and asked him to pass appropriate orders. The State had urged the Bench to set aside the orders of the single judge. The High Court order will now afford an opportunity to the trust and other devotees of Bababudan Giri to place their views before the Endowment Commissioner. The commission would have to hold an inquiry and consider the views of all parties before coming to a decision on religious practices being followed at the shrine prior to 1978.

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