After multiple temple committees in Karnataka announced that they will not lease shops in their temple premises to non-Hindus, the Karnataka government has clarified that the move is legal as the law regarding Hindu temples makes the same provision. The govt informed the Karnataka assembly today that according to the rules under the Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act 2002, non-Hindus cannot do business in and around the premises of the Hindu religious institutions.
According to reports, this was informed in the assembly by law minister J C Madhuswamy answering to a question raised during zero hour by Congress MLAs U T Khader and Rizwan Arshad. The Congress MLAs had objected to banners and posters that have come in several temples asking non-Hindu traders having shops in temple premises vacate them.
The law minister said that as per law, non-Hindus are already not supposed to do businesses in and around Hindu temples. “As per rule number 12 under the act, non-Hindus are barred from the premises to do business in and around the premises,” he said, adding that the govt can’t interfere in the decisions of temple committees as it was as per law.
The minister added that if people are asking non-Hindu shopkeepers to vacate the shops beyond the Hindu religious areas, then action will be taken against those distributing the banners and posters. “As per the The Hindu Religious Institutions And Charitable Endowments Act and Rules that were framed in 2002, it is prohibited to lease out the space near a Hindu religious institution to a person of another faith. If these recent incidents of banning Muslim traders have occurred outside the premises of the religious institutions, we will rectify. Otherwise, as per norms, no other community is allowed to set up shop on the premises,” law minister Madhuswamy said.
The minister also pointed out that these rules were made when the Congress party was in power.
The Congress MLAs had claimed that the even the non-Hindu roadside vendors are also being targeted in this campaign. U T Khader said, “Such posters, flyers and banners are creating a discord in our society and destroying communal harmony. We urge the government to ensure such incidents do not occur.”
Responding to the issue, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the law already in place in the matter, and govt will look into it further. Talking about the decision of Marigudi Temple administration to bar non-Hindu traders from the historic Kote Marikamba Jatra, the CM said that, a lot of shops are sub-leased for business to non-Hindus. The lessees who take the shops on rent from temple committees sub-lease them to make money.
The CM said that these are business deals, and the govt is into the law for such cases and also look into the facts of the cases.
The issue of non-Hindus doing business in Hindu temples was raised after some Muslim shopkeepers had joined the protests against the hijab verdict of Karnataka High Court. After several Muslim traders had kept their shops shut as part of the protests, the managing committee of Hosa Marigudi Temple in Kaup in Udupi district, had decided not to allow Muslims to bid for the auction to allocate shops for the annual ‘Suggi Mari Pooje’.
Following that, the organising committee of the historic Kote Marikamba Jatra in Shivamogga had also taken a similar decision. The committee had withdrawn the original tender notice and issued a new one stipulated that only Hindus can bid for doing business at the Hindu festival. After that, reportedly, posters and banners have come up around other Hindu temples asking non-Hindus to vacate their shops in and around the temple premises.
