K'taka HC strikes down HR and CE Act

Bangalore, Sep 8 (UNI) In a significant and pathbreaking judgment, the Karnataka High Court today struck down the Karnataka Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, holding it as arbitrary and unconstitutional.

The Division Bench, comprising Mr Justice R Gururajan and Mr Justice G R Kumaraswamy, allowed a large batch of writ petitions filed by the Managing Trustee of Mangala Devi temple, Mangalore and other temples and mutts from across the state and upheld their contentions that the impugned Act--Karnataka Act 33 of 2001 and gazetted on November two, 2001--was violative of articles 14, 19, 25 and 26 of the Indian Constitution and was therefore liable to be struck down.

After hearing in detail the petitioners and the counsel for the state, the Bench, in its 176-page judgment, upheld the contention and struck down the Act in its entirety.

The petitioners said that by a notification dated April 30, 2003 issued under section 23 of the impugned Act, the state government sought to bring the temples as per the list annexed to the notification under the umbrella of the Act.

The provisions of sections 23 to 36 dealt with the power of the government to notify the instititions to be brought under the umbrella of the Act in constituting the committee of mangagement of the institutions, its term, compositions, functions and suspensions as well as dissolution of the committees under certain conditions.

The petititoners further said the avowed purpose of the Act was to make better provisions for management and administration of the institutions.

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