Thread by @LawBeatInd

A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking direction(s)/order(s)/declaration that Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists "have similar rights to establish, manage and maintain their religious places like Muslims, Parsis, Christians."

The plea seeks a declaration that those belonging to these religions have similar rights to own, acquire, administer movable, immovable properties of their religious places like Muslims, Christians and that the State cannot abridge these rights.

The petitioner, Adv. Ashwini Upadhyay also seeks a declaration that laws made to own, acquire, administer movable, immovable properties of temples, gurudwaras, are arbitrary, irrational, and offend Articles 14, 15 and 26.

The petitioner states that if necessary, the "Court may direct the Centre or Law Commission to draft a 'Common Charter for Religious and Charitable Institutions' and 'Uniform Code for Religious-Charitable Endowments'.

The plea states that the cause of action accrued on Apr 10, 2016 when 1000-year-old Naganathswamy Temple built by King Rajendra Chola in the Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu was "pulled down by the State in the garb of renovation."

Referring to a UNESCO Report, the plea states that in Aug 2017, alarm was raised that the "Tamil Nadu government managing around 30,000 temples has neither the capacity nor qualified experts to carry out conservation, leading to massacre of ancient temples."

Lamenting that "the sheer scale of treasure is unappreciated" in Tamil Nadu, the plea says, hundreds of temples are over 1000 years old.

Pointing out that State governments are controlling temples and gurudwaras but not mosques and churches the plea says, the "injury to Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs is extremely large".

The plea also criticizes the Hindu Religious Charitable Endowments Acts saying that these have allowed States to assume financial, economic and managerial control of thousands of temples. "These HRCE depts are headed either by a Minister or by so-called autonomous boards..."

@shreyagarwal_12 reports