The sanctity of a temple is not so fragile as to be endangered by the presence of the Creator’s children who, by accident of circumstance, live modestly besides it in a slum, said the High Court of Karnataka.
“What deeply wounds the conscience of the court are the contentions advanced by the temple samiti, which lamentably contended that the mere presence of slum dwellers around the hallowed precincts of the temple erodes its sanctity and serenity and offends the religious sentiments of countless devotees,” the court observed.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna made these observations while dismissing a petition filed by devotees of Kalikamba temple in Mandya questioning the declaration of 20 guntas of land adjacent to the temple as a slum under the Karnataka Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act, 1973.
Apalling assertion
The statement made in writing by the Kalikamba Seva Samiti “proclaims that slum dwellers are lesser beings, bereft of the right to devotion, right to shelter and a right to dwell besides a place of worship,” the court said, while observing that “such an assertion [by the samiti], in this enlightened age, is appalling.”
