The feud between the two Madhva mutts on permitting Sugunendra Thirta of Puttige Mutt to participate in the Paryaya fest is heading for a legal showdown.
The feud between the two Madhva mutts on permitting Sugunendra Thirta of Puttige Mutt to participate in the Paryaya fest is heading for a legal showdown.
A group belonging to the Sode Vadiraja Mutt has not paid heed to appeals of the state religious endowments minister VS Acharya or the advice of scholars.
“We have tried to bring some sense of responsibility in the administrators of Sode Vadiraja Mutt, but in vain. We have to look into the legal aspects,” said Sripathy Tantri, a leader of Madhva Brahmin community.
“The problem was not with the young Sode Mutt swamiji Vishwavallabh Thirtha, but with the people around him, including his advisor Rathnakumar and the swamiji’s father. They are keeping everybody else away from him. I pity the young swamiji, who is now confined to a room in the mutt. He has been kept under solitary confinement by the mutt authorities,” said Prof Tantri.
The act of social or religious boycott of a person or a group has been declared as a social dogma and such practices have been banished in India since 1935.
“Imposing social, religious and economical ban on a person irrespective of his crime cannot be accepted in the modern world. He can be tried in the court of law but not by any religious body or group of people. Sugunendra Thirta going abroad is not a crime. If hardliner administrators see foreign trips as a sacrilege, they can award some sort of penance or suggest rectification process within the Ashtamutt swamiji’s council, but banning a swamiji or any other individual for that matter is anti-constitutional,” said
KL Acharya, a legal expert on religious matters.
In 2008, when a similar dispute had surfaced involving Puttige Swamiji, the high court had directed the Ashtamutts to allow Puttige Swamiji to conduct the Paryaya (2008-09) according to the tradition of Udupi.
He maintained that the direction by the court was still binding on the Ashtamutts.
“If they do not allow the swamiji to participate in the Paryaya on January 18, it will be a contempt of court,” said Prasannachar, administrator of Puttige Mutt.
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