Karnataka - Bangalore

Public hearing to codify rituals postponed

— FILE Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

A view of the Bababudangiri Datta Peetha near Chikmagalur.

Bangalore: The public hearing for codifying the religious rituals at the Bababudangiri shrine in Chikmagalur district, scheduled for November 22 by the Commissioner of Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments, has been postponed. The date of the re-scheduled hearing is yet to be announced.

This follows the deputation of the Endowment Commissioner, K.S. Prabhakar, for election work in Madhya Pradesh. Speaking to The Hindu, he said that the re-scheduled date will be announced after his return to the State on November 28.

The commissioner had issued a notification on October 17 announcing that the date of hearing and inviting “petitioners, respondents, devotees, and interested parties” to appear for the enquiry either personally or through an authorised advocate and produce records in supposed of their claim. It says that if none appear, “the matter will be heard and decided on the available records.”

The enquiry followed the order of the single judge Bench of the Karnataka High Court on February 14, 2007, which had directed the Commissioner for Religious and Charitable Endowments to hold a public enquiry and codify rituals. The commissioner was to go into the rituals in vogue not only prior to 1975 but also prior to the rule of Haidar Ali.

A petition by the Karnataka Government, challenging this order, had been dismissed by a Divisional Bench of the High Court, which did not find any reason to stay the single bench order observing that “after all nothing has been finalised in the order” and only enquiry had been ordered. The Divisional Bench vacated the stay order on August 4 this year and directed the Endowment Commissioner to go ahead with the public enquiry and codification.

Meanwhile, members of Komu Sauharda Vedike and others have approached the Supreme Court challenging the Division Bench order on the ground that the Endowment Commissioner had codified rituals after conducting a public enquiry according to the order by the same court in 1989.

The vedike had raised objections to the date and venue fixed for the public enquiry also, saying that holding the inquiry on a single day and only in Bangalore was inappropriate.

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