The Supreme Court on Monday stayed an Andhra Pradesh High Court judgment restraining the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams from gold-plating the sanctum sanctorum of the main Balaji temple at Tirumala.
A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly stayed the High Court judgment which also held illegal and unconstitutional the plan for gold-plating the sanctum sanctorum and that it was without jurisdiction of the TTD.
The Bench granted the stay despite having heard senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for the petitioner D.K. Audikesavulu Naidu, the former TTD Chairman, who was challenging the High Court judgment dated November 29. Mr. Salve submitted that the High Court judgment was erroneous as it did not take into consideration the religious sentiments of the devotees.
The High Court, acting on a batch of writ petitions filed by G. Raghava Reddy, president of the Devalayaparirakshna Samiti, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy and the Parameswara Seva Samithi had said “any meddling with ancient inscriptions on the walls of the sanctum sanctorum would amount to interfering with the religious aspects of the institution and it can't form part of any secular activity and, as such, the same is without any jurisdiction.”
After the TTD had announced “Anantha Swarnamaya Pathakam” and solicited donations for the project, it received large quantities of gold from devotees.
The petitioners contended that gold-plating would destroy the rare inscriptions on the walls which had religious value. Besides, the main temple would be weakened by drilling more than 1,400 rivets into the walls.
Accepting the petitioners' stand, the High Court held that the issue of gold-plating involved religious practices, beliefs and sentiments of devotees and would violate Articles 25 and 27 of the Constitution.
The High Court faulted the TTD for taking the project up in a hurry, in a “whimsical manner”, unmindful of the religious sentiments involved.
It considered the report of the Archaeological Survey of India, which said “gold-plating would damage the inscriptions and the structure in the long run. The court held that the inscriptions pertained to temple deity, and were of immense value. They could not be treated as bare structures unconnected with the deity.”
The TTD Board's decision to gold-plate the walls does not adhere to the bare procedure contemplated under law.
