A district court directed the former swamiji of Kashi Mutt Samsthan to hand over all movable samsthan properties had been holding illegally since 1994.
Over 26 lakh Gowd Saraswath Brahmins (GSB) of Konkan coast hailed the Ernakulum district court’s order directing the fugitive former swamiji of Kashi Mutt Samsthan to hand over all movable samsthan properties had been holding illegally since 1994.
For the Konkani-speaking GSB community, the relief comes after a long legal battle between the samsthan and the former swamiji, Raghavendra Thirtha.
The material Raghavendra holds illegally is important for the samsthan as they were ‘parikaras’ with a long lineage, handed down.
The Ernakulum district court, in its order issued by the first additional district and sessions judge VG Anil Kumar, has given him 15 days to return all the Parikaras to the Samsthan. Earlier the Thirupathi court, Andhra Pradesh high court and the Supreme court had struck down all the appeals filed by Raghavendra Thirtha praying to retain the parikaras. Raghavendra was evicted from the samsthan by the Matadhipathi Sudheendra Thirta on charges of impropriety and insubordination.
“In our samsthan, there is only one matadhipathi. The junior swamiji should carry out the works assigned to him by the matadhipathi but this was not followed by Raghavendra. He was evicted in 2001,” said Vishwanath Kamath, a senior GSB leader.
The matadhipathi of Kashi Math Samsthan octogenarian Sudheendra Thirtha is under ‘chaturmasya’ in Dahisar branch of Kashi Math samsthan in Mumbai.
This was the fourth order that as many courts have delivered in favour of the matadhipathi.
“If he does not submit all the movable properties of the math, we will initiate criminal procedure against him,” said Kamath. The legal battle left the GSB community confused, as the parikaras should have been given daily poojas by the swamiji, they are not something that can be kept in a bag and moved around.
Raghavendra, however, had moved his residence from Thirupathi to Ernakulum and now nobody knows for sure where he is.
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