{"id":9196,"date":"2020-07-25T17:27:55","date_gmt":"2020-07-25T11:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=9196"},"modified":"2023-04-07T16:21:41","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T10:51:41","slug":"padmanabhaswamy-temple-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/padmanabhaswamy-temple-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Padmanabhaswamy Temple Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Padmanabhaswamy Temple Case<\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Relevance: Prelims\/Mains: G.S paper II: Polity: Governance<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.drishtiias.com\/images\/uploads\/1594714198_image1.png\" alt=\"The Padmanabhaswamy Temple Case\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court upheld the right of the Travancore royal family to manage the property of deity at Padmanabha Swamy Temple.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>What is the case about?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The central legal question was whether Marthanda Varma could claim to be the \u201cRuler of Travancore\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>[Marthanda Varma is the younger brother of Balarama Varma, the last Ruler of Travancore who died in 1991.]<\/li>\n<li>The court examined this claim within the meaning of that term as per the Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act, 1950.<\/li>\n<li>This claim also includes the ownership, control and management of the temple, Thiruvananthapuram.<\/li>\n<li>The court said that the\u00a0<strong>shebait rights survive with the family members<\/strong>\u00a0even after the death of the last ruler.<\/li>\n<li>[Shebait rights &#8211; Right to manage the financial affairs of the deity.]<\/li>\n<li>This SC decision has reversed the 2011 Kerala High Court decision.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/d18x2uyjeekruj.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/temple.jpg\" alt=\"Padmanabhaswamy Temple Verdict by the Supreme Court \u2013 Civilsdaily\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Who had these claims of the temple before 1991?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Before 1947, the Travancore Devaswom Board controlled the temple that was under the control of the former Princely State of Travancore.<\/li>\n<li>The Instrument of Accession was signed between the princely state of Travancore and the Government of India in 1949.<\/li>\n<li>Since then, the administration of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple was \u201cvested in trust\u201d in the Ruler of Travancore.<\/li>\n<li>In 1971, privy purses to the former royals were abolished through a constitutional amendment stripping their entitlements and privileges.<\/li>\n<li>The move was upheld in the court in 1993.<\/li>\n<li>The last ruler of Travancore who died during the pendency of this case continued to manage the affairs of the temple till then.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>When did the legal issue begin?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In 1991, when the last ruler\u2019s brother took over the temple management, it created a furore among the devotees.<\/li>\n<li>They moved to the courts leading to a long-drawn legal battle.<\/li>\n<li>The government joined in; supporting the claims of the petitioner that Marthanda Varma had no legal right to claim the control of the temple.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Is the temple the property of the royal family?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The character of the temple was always recognised as a\u00a0<strong>public institution<\/strong>\u00a0governed by a statute.<\/li>\n<li>The argument of the royal family is that, as per custom, the temple management would vest with them for perpetuity.<\/li>\n<li>The last ruler had not included the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple as his personal property or dealt with it in his will.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>What about the temple\u2019s property, including the riches in the vaults?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A consequence of who has administrative rights over the temple is whether the vaults of the temple will be opened.<\/li>\n<li>In 2007, Marthanda Varma claimed that the treasures of the temple were the family property of the royals.<\/li>\n<li>Several suits were filed objecting to this claim.<\/li>\n<li>A lower court in Kerala passed an injunction against the vaults\u2019 opening.<\/li>\n<li>In 2011, the Kerala High Court ordered that a board be constituted to manage the affairs of the temple, ruling against the royal family.<\/li>\n<li>The royal family filed the appeal in the SC against this verdict immediately.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>What did the SC rule?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The SC had stayed the HC verdict.<\/li>\n<li>It also appointed two amicus curiae to prepare an inventory of items in the six vaults.<\/li>\n<li>While five vaults were opened, vault B was not.<\/li>\n<li>Since 2011, the process of opening the vaults has led to the discovery of treasures within the Padmanabhaswamy temple.<\/li>\n<li>This prompted a debate on who owns temple property and how it should be regulated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>How temples are controlled?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>India is a secular country that separates religion from the state affairs.<\/li>\n<li>However, Hindu temples and its assets are governed through statutory laws and boards heavily controlled by state governments.<\/li>\n<li>This system came into being through the development of a legal framework to outlaw untouchability by treating temples as public land.<\/li>\n<li>It has resulted in many legal battles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>For more such notes, Articles, News &amp; Views Join our Telegram Channel.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Telegram Link\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/triumphias\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>https:\/\/t.me\/triumphias<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Click the link below to see the details about the UPSC \u2013Civils courses offered by Triumph IAS.<\/strong><\/span> <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" title=\"Courses available\" href=\"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/pages-all-courses.php\">https:\/\/triumphias.com\/pages-all-courses.php<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Padmanabhaswamy Temple Case Relevance: Prelims\/Mains: G.S paper II: Polity: Governance Why in news? The Supreme Court upheld the right of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,18],"tags":[1729,2644,1696,2647,2641,2648,2643,2651,2649,2646,2642,1391,2650,390,2645],"class_list":["post-9196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-general-studies-ii","tag-governance","tag-hindu-religious-institutions-act","tag-india","tag-legal-battle","tag-padmanabhaswamy-temple","tag-public-institution","tag-shebait-rights","tag-state-affairs","tag-statutory-laws","tag-temple-property","tag-travancore-royal-family","tag-triumph-ias","tag-untouchability","tag-upsc","tag-vaults"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9196"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13706,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9196\/revisions\/13706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}