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The landmark ruling of the Kerala high court recently that a trained priest belonging to any caste was eligible to be appointed a priest has been hailed by all the major Hindu organisations In the state.
The full bench of the court had ruled that the appointment of priests based, on caste was unconstitutional. Tike bench was considering a writ petition referred to It by a division bench the appointment of S. Rajesh as priest of the Siva temple in Kongarapilly.
Petitioner N. Adithyan had contended that no person except a Kerala Brahmin had ever conducted a pooja In a Siva temple. Mr Rajesh happens to be an Ezhava, an OBC, but he, being a trained priest, was appointed by the Travancore Devaswom Board.
The Petitioner had argued that as per section 24 and section 31 of the Travancore Cochin Hindu Religious Institution Act,' the Devaswom Board was duty-bound to follow the precedent In the Hindu community. Since no non-Brahmin priest had ever conducted a pooja In a temple, the appointment of Rajesh must be pronounced Invalid.
The Hindu Aikya Vedi, a leading Hindu voluntary organisation in Kerala, has termed the ruling, “historic” which would go a long way towards the demolition of the decaying caste system. The chairman of the vedi, Swami Sathyananda Saraswathy, said the judgement which was not a day too soon had the potential to engender brotherhood among various Hindu castes and help regeneration of the community.
The swami said many pseudo-sadhus had defiled the places of worship and brought a bad name to the Hindu community. Some so-called ashrams even practised casteism within their premises.
Kummanom Rajasekharan, a prominent leader of the Hindu community, while welcoming the court ruling, said the ruling would hasten the making of a modern Kerala. He said the ruling was the most important event after the Travancore royal declaration of temple entry in the thirties which allowed all irrespective of all castes to go in and worship any temple in Travancore.
BJP leader P.P. Mukundan said his party welcomed the court order. He said it was in fact an RSS pracharak, P. Madhavan, who had set up the country’s first “tantra vidyalaya” on the bank of the Periyar 15 years ago.
Mr Rajesh happens to be a coworker of Mr Madhavan. The vidyalaya trains youths for priesthood. It is a six-year rigorous course open to all the castes of the Hindu community.
A leader of the All-Kerala Brahmins’
Association who preferred anonymity said he hailed the ruling but could
not speak on behalf of the association without consulting them.
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