New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India has restrained Coimbatore rural police from taking any further action against Isha Foundation and has transferred judicial proceedings in the case from the Madras High Court to the Supreme Court in Delhi.
The Supreme Court on Thursday also directed the Coimbatore rural police to file a status report on the matter if inmates living in the Isha Foundation were being held in the ashram run by Sadguru against their wishes.
Isha foundation moved apex court against High Court order
This order by a three judge bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra comes on a petition filed by Isha foundation, which challenged a Madras High Court order directing the Coimbatore rural police to look into allegations that several inmates at the ashram of Isha foundation were forced to stay there and conduct an inquiry and file a status report on the same.
Coimbatore rural police had sent a force of 150 policemen at the ashram on October 1 following High Court order
Following the High Court order, Coimbatore rural police had sent a force of 150 policemen at the ashram on October 1, where they examined every room and interacted with persons at the ashram.
Aggrieved by the police presence on the ashram, the Isha Foundation on Thursday submitted to the court that such police presence violated their right to religious freedom and moreover, the petition filed in the high court was motivated with ill intentions.
What did the High Court say?
The Madras High Court had on September 30, while hearing a habeas Corpus petition filed by one Dr Kamraj, who had alleged that his two daughters were living in the ashram against their wishes, directed police to inquire if inmates at the ashram were staying there against their wishes.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Isha Foundation told the court that a similar habeas corpus petition was filed 8 years back in the Madras High court by mother of two girls living in the ashram as monks and levelled same allegations of the girls being forced to stay there.
“However, 8 years later, the father of the girls has again approached the High Court making similar charges and they have been rebutted by he girls who appeared before the High court and deposed before it,” said Rohatgi.
Apex court also interacted with two girls
On Thursday, the supreme court judges hearing the case also interacted with the two girls to ascertain if the allegations levelled by their father, that the girls were staying at the ashram against their wishes, were true or not.
The Supreme court in its order recorded that they had interacted with the girls who said they were staying at the ashram of their free will and their father has been harassing the Foundation for last 8 years by making allegations against it.
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