The sanctity of a temple is not truthful fragile arsenic to beryllium endangered by the beingness of the Creator’s children who, by mishap of circumstance, unrecorded modestly too it successful a slum, said the High Court of Karnataka.
“What profoundly wounds the conscience of the tribunal are the contentions precocious by the temple samiti, which lamentably contended that the specified beingness of slum dwellers astir the hallowed precincts of the temple erodes its sanctity and serenity and offends the spiritual sentiments of countless devotees,” the tribunal observed.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna made these observations portion dismissing a petition filed by devotees of Kalikamba temple successful Mandya questioning the declaration of 20 guntas of onshore adjacent to the temple arsenic a slum nether the Karnataka Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act, 1973.
Apalling assertion
The connection made successful penning by the Kalikamba Seva Samiti “proclaims that slum dwellers are lesser beings, bereft of the close to devotion, close to structure and a close to dwell too a spot of worship,” the tribunal said, portion observing that “such an assertion [by the samiti], successful this enlightened age, is appalling.”
“The conception that the divine aura of a temple could beryllium diminished by the proximity of humble homes oregon sullied by the introduction of a slum dweller bespeaks a mindset steeped successful prejudice and exclusion. This tribunal cannot but observe that specified a stance is an effort to rend nine asunder on the lines of caste, class, oregon creed,” the tribunal observed.
No gradation of worth
In a federation wherever the Constitution enshrines equality for all, each citizen, beryllium they beryllium exalted oregon downtrodden, affluent oregon impoverished, is vested with the aforesaid cardinal rights, the tribunal said, portion pointing retired that “equality does not admit gradations of worth; it encompasses the entirety of our citizenry.”
“If India has to endure arsenic a federation of the archetypal order, it cannot consign immoderate of its citizens to a 2nd people existence. The dignity of slum dwellers is nary little ineffable that of the devout. The rights of 1 cannot beryllium secured by the suppression of the other. The Constitution knows nary hierarchy of quality worth, each are adjacent earlier its gaze,” the tribunal observed.
