Devaswom Minister K. Radhakrishnan rejected retired Supreme Court justice Indu Malhotra's purported claim that communist governments aspired to take over Hindu temples with an eye on their wealth.
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In a statement here, Mr. Radhakrishnan alleged that revanchist Hindu right-wing forces had influenced Ms. Malhotra’s opinion.
The retired judge’s misleading statement was part of a broader Sangh Parivar conspiracy against the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government. He said it had opened a window into the workings of her mind when she was on the Supreme Court.
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Mr. Radhakrishnan said Ms. Malhotra's allegation was far from facts and distorted history. Neither the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] nor the Left Democratic Front (LDF) administrations had attempted to take over temples.
Right of worship
However, the Left progressive forces had fought for the right of worship of people, hailing from all sections of society, including marginalised communities.
The colonial administration had banned specific communities from worshipping, entering or walking in the vicinity of temples. Renaissance leaders and progressive forces rectified the injustice through decades of storied struggle and sacrifice.
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The comment
A video supposedly shot outside the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram showed Ms. Malhotra speaking to a set of people about the topic. Ms. Malhotra is heard stating: "That is what happens with these communist governments. They want to just take over because of the revenue. Their problem is the revenue. All over, they have taken over. All over. Only Hindu temples. So Justice Lalit and I said, no, we will not allow it (sic)."
Ms. Malhotra drew flak from the LDF government after the post went viral on social media.
The former jurist has been on a visit to the State to attend various events, including a medical convention organised in connection with the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College on Sunday.
A Division Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice U.U. Lalit and Ms. Malhotra had in 2020 upheld the rights of the erstwhile Travancore royal family to administer the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple. The judgement had capped a protracted legal battle over whether the former ruling family or the State government had the right to manage the temple after the death of the erstwhile ruler of Travancore, Sree Chithira Tirunal Balarama Varma in July, 1991.
Ms. Malhotra was also part of a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court that in September 2018 had quashed the rule that barred women aged 10-50 from entering and worshipping at the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala. Ms. Malhotra was the sole judge who wrote a dissenting note against the Constitution Bench’s majority opinion. In her dissent note, she said that notions of rationality could not be invoked in matters of religion. Ms. Malhotra also held that it was not for courts to adjudicate on matters of faith except on issues of social evil like ‘Sati’.