‘Babri of the South’: K'taka Forms Hindu, Muslim Panel To Manage Disputed Shrine

The shrine has been dubbed by right-wing members as 'Babri Masjid of the South'.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Karnataka government told the Karnataka High Court on Monday, 22 August, that they have decided to set up a committee comprising both Hindus and Muslims to manage the disputed Dattatreya Bababudan Swamy Peetha-Dargah located inside a cave at Bababudangiri Hills in Chikkamagaluru.

The shrine has been at the center of controversies for around three decades, with the right-wing members dubbing it as the 'Babri Masjid of the South'.

Members of both Hindu and Muslim communities revere the worship place as a Hindu shrine in the name of Dattatreya and a dargah in the name of Sufi saint Baba Budan are present there.

As per the recommendations made by sub-committee of the state cabinet, the said committee will reportedly be formed under the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act, 1997.

The state also told a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty that a Hindu priest and a Muslim Mujawar will be appointed by the management committee to perform the prescribed rituals, reported The Hindu.

The state had on 19 July issued an order to constitute the management committee based on the recommendations of the sub-committee headed by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy. It had accepted the recommendations on 1 July.

The court was hearing a plea filed by Syed Ghouse Mohiyiddin Shah Khadri, former mujawar of the Shrine who had challenged an earlier court order that had quashed the 2018 government order that allowed only the Muslim side to conduct the rituals at the shrine.

While quashing the order, the single judge had found fault with the government forming a panel led by a retired High Court judge to examine the issue, and had asked the state to review it without considering the panel's report.

The judge had also pointed out that the 2018 government order had violated rights of both communities guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution by infringing upon the rights of the Hindu side to perform rituals at the shrine as per their faith and imposing the mujawar to carry out ‘Paduke puja’ and light ‘nanda deepa’ going against his faith.

The court has adjourned the further hearing of the appeal to September 5.

(With inputs from PTI, The Hindu.)