Pandharpur Temples Act enacted to relieve devotees from rapacity of priestly classes: Maha govt to Bombay HC

Pandharpur Temples Act was enacted to safeguard the interests of the Vitthal and Rukmini temples due to special circumstances and to relieve devotees from the rapacity of the priestly classes, the Maharashtra government has submitted to the Bombay High Court.

The government in its affidavit filed on August 24 in response to a petition filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and Jagdish Shetty challenging the provisions of the Act, said it was not violative of the fundamental rights of devotees as alleged in the plea. In an affidavit submitted on August 24 in response to a petition Subramanian Swamy and Jagdish Shetty filed challenging the terms of the Act, the government stated that the Act did not violate the fundamental rights of devotees as claimed in the petition.

Lord Vitthal and Goddess Rukmini have temples in the Maharashtra town of Pandharpur, which is part of the Solapur district. Every year, thousands of devotees go by foot to Pandharpur for a pilgrimage that ends on Ashadhi Ekadashi. There were special circumstances prevailing in relation to the Pandharpur temples, which occupy a unique position in the state, necessitating action on the part of the government to safeguard the interests of the temples, its properties and endowment, and the multitude of pilgrims so as to relieve them from the rapacity of the priestly classes, the affidavit stated. It further stated that the Act was passed in response to complaints about the priestly classes' mismanagement of the temples.

It said the Act does not in any manner impair or curtail the rights of devotees or pilgrims to profess, practice or propagate their religion but was legitimately introduced in the interest of the general public. The petitioners  Swamy and Shetty in their rejoinder to the state's affidavit, however, maintained that the provisions of the Pandharpur Temples Act are violative of the fundamental rights of the petitioners, devotees of Lord Vitthal and Goddess Rukmini and Hindus at large.

The Pandharpur temples occupy a unique position in the state having national importance. The temples are considered as public temples open to all persons abiding to different faiths and philosophies and have been found to not be religious denominational institutions, it said.