An amicus curiae is a friend of the court: someone who is not a party to a case and may or may not have been solicited by a party and who assists a court by offering information, expertise or insight that has a bearing on the issues in a particular case. He is typically presented in the form of a brief.
Eminent lawyer of India Gopal Subramanium has been appointed the amicus curiae by the Supreme Court after a PIL was filed by social worker of Odisha Mrinalini Padhi seeking relief from the torture inflicted by a sizeable number of unruly Jagannath Temple servitors and their business associates who have lately turned intolerably ill-behaved and vulgar with the sole motive of extracting money from devotees by intimidation and guile. The Supreme Court took strong note of the grave situation and ordered the Puri District Judge to make a thorough inquiry into the matter and put up discreet as well as judicious recommendations to the apex court within a fortnight. The Puri judge did a splendid job within the shortest time and placed his recommendations based on twelve critical findings, one of which was to have the hereditary rights of servitors abolished, which incidentally is a most popular demand for decades. The Supreme Court found the recommendations perfectly logical and passed an interim order to have them implemented instantly, which sent a chill up the spines of the rogue servitors who do not have any knowledge of right and wrong or even the ABCs of age-old rituals or even the basics kills required, yet pose as the ones at the service of the deities. Rattled badly by the court’s directions, a section of servitors, close to some local politicians and with some money in pocket, has mindlessly alleged that the move is part of a larger conspiracy hatched by powerful non-Odia officers in the State Government.
The District Judge Shri Ambuja Mohan Das had suggested, among the twelve strong points, introduction of a queue system for hassle-free darshan, a complete ban on acceptance of Dakshina (offertory) by servitors and identity cards and a strict dress code for servitors and all other functionaries. Hygiene and sanitation issues too were to be resolved by the temple administration. The suggestions also included an absolute control of the shrine kitchen by the temple administration for fair pricing of Mahaprasad, registration of guides with temple office and a complete ban on the use of Thalis and pitchers by servitors to receive offerings with the sole view to leaving the devotees safe and immune to invasive approach by rogue servitors to make money illegally or by intimidation. A high-definition CCTV system too has to be in place to keep watch over the behaviour of rogues in the temple premises. The Supreme Court had asked the temple administration to take action without delay.
Significantly, the Justice BK Patra Commission of 1977 had also recommended abolition of hereditary priesthood and the offertory system. But the recommendations could not be implemented due to a casual attitude of the Government then mainly because the servitors were not so vile or virulent.
The temple administration has been asked to upload a copy of the District Judge’s report on the website of the temple administration so as to make the recommendations popularly known. The copy was also hosted on the websites of the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Culture for two weeks.
Unfortunately, the Gajapati king and he Shankaracharya of Puri have not agreed to the proposal of allowing devotees from all religions as the divine name of the Lord suggests, Lord of the Universe encompassing every living creature as dear and fit to enter the temple.
The top court had specifically directed the Odisha Government to study the management schemes of other important shrines such as Vaishno Devi in Jammu and Kashmir, Somnath Temple in Gujarat, Golden Temple in Punjab, Tirupati Temple in Andhra Pradesh and Dharamsthala Temple in Karnataka.
Quite in the past between 1859 and 1897, the Puri temple management had turned shoddy for several unavoidable circumstances. The British Government had to step in to intervene. But unlike today, the general public and Hindu religious leaders did not keep quiet about the difficult situation then. People across Odisha agitated for immediate restoration of peace and order in the temple management. The regional Press was then led by ‘Utkal Dipika’ to exert pressure on the Government to rush in and make the temple premises a divinely serene and devotee-friendly environment. The occasional discord or confusion among insiders was forgotten by the Odia society, which came together to ensure the temple was considered the best shrine in the world. Legendary lawyer and maker of Odisha, Madhusudan Das fought tooth and nail against the British administration when it overstepped its jurisdiction in the temple affairs. Around that time, the Gajapati king was no more and the brave queen Suryamani Patadei, with an adopted minor son, had handled all problems with help from Madhusudan Das. Today, with a much bigger number of people and incredible information technology in hand, most people, particularly youths, have no sensitivity to rise to the occasion and raise a voice against rogue servitors who are a thousand times better off financially and status wise than they were only thirty years ago due to want of so many facilities and in the absence of equity in getting wages for services offered to the deities.
The Puri District Judge has created history by solving a most contentious problem ailing the temple for over thirty-odd years ever since the servitors attained visibility due to television broadcast and countless other publicity initiatives by the temple earning substantial amounts of money and goods through the Hundi system and more.
Gopal Subramanium was chosen by the Supreme Court to be the amicus curiae for a very valid reason. The friend of the court is fantastically versed with the fundamental tenets of Hindu religion and all its nuances. He has read and digested most of the popular and esoteric scriptures available in the society. His primary job is to make sure the District Judge has truly done a magnificent job. It is learnt from reliable sources that he will meet the Shankaracharya and the Gajapati king for ideas and responses. But as everyone knows, the Shankaracharya is kind of a Hindu fundamentalist who does not believe unorthodox Hindus are true to the religion. Hence, his aggressive opposition to the ISKCON devotees who are practically more Hindu than most of the crowd. Besides, it is literally impossible to describe an orthodox Hindu as there is no known set of parameters or symptoms to identify one. The Gajapati king of today is a noble soul without guts or grit. He does not want to raise any controversies by spelling out some hardcore truths about the universal faith called the ‘Sanatana Dharma’. So, he might play safe by keeping quiet; and the Shankaracharya may in all probability confuse the ‘Friend of the Court’ with archaic and obsolete examples of practices which are grossly non-secular in spirit. The Shankaracharya for sure is not skilled to be able to differentiate between secularism and religious practices.
Lastly, the temple administration too does not have a good number of super brains to go by the truth and logic the way the District Judge has shown and is likely to follow a populist path by being on neither this side or the other. The day the temple administration agreed to support the servitors on the abolition of hereditary right, the sensible citizenry realised that all is not so well with the top administrators. Hopefully, the splendidly knowledgeable Amicus Curiae will sense the situation well and ditto the draft of wisdom text written by the District Judge, who has proven to be a million times wiser than the Temple Reforms Commission experts that wasted so much public money, time and energy by doing virtually nothing in nearly two years.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)