Justice Indu Malhotra misled, should have verified facts: Justice KT Thomas

Justice Indu Malhotra has been receiving flak from several quarters for her allegation recorded on video that Communist governments are only interested in taking over temples. Now, the judge who retired on March 13, 2021, is also being slammed for her remark by senior members of the legal fraternity.

Former Supreme Court judge, Justice KT Thomas told Mathrubhumi that Justice Indu Malhotra should have first verified her facts before commenting publicly on the issue. However, he said that she was not “prejudiced” in anyway but was misled by the wrong information given to her.

Earlier this week, Justice Malhotra created a stir when an old video surfaced of her telling a group of devotees outside the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple that the communist governments just want to take over the temples because of the revenue and they have done it all over with only Hindu temples. That is the reason she said that Justice UU Lalit and she had halted such takeovers and added that she won’t allow it.

She was reportedly referring to the 2020 judgment where the Supreme Court had upheld the right of the Travancore royal family to manage the administration of the Padmanabha Swamy Temple, after the death of the king of Travancore. The court was hearing an appeal filed by the royal family of Travancore, who had challenged a 2011 Kerala high court judgement that had given the maintenance rights to the Kerala government.

Also read: Data debunks Indu Malhotra’s ‘Communist takeover of Hindu temples’ remark

Further, the temple administration was handed over to an administrative committee to be headed by a district judge of Thiruvananthapuram, state secretary level IAS officer, official nominees of state and Union government, chief tantri of temple and one ex-royal family member. However, the court directed the administrative committee to pay up ₹11.70 crore to the state government for the expenses they had incurred for the temple upkeep during the years 2012 to 2019. The court had also ordered a special audit of the Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple trust for the past 25 years.

Meanwhile, the former Supreme Court judge’s comment has received widespread criticism, with several sections calling her out for allegedly peddling fake narratives concocted by Hindutva outfits in Kerala for more than a decade.

Interestingly, the theory of ‘Hindu temples being looted by communist government’ has been debunked several times by many people with the help of data.

Meanwhile, former Kerala finance minister, Dr Thomas Issac tweeted that Justice Indu Malhotra is ignorant of public finance of Kerala government, and worse, deeply prejudiced against communists. Not a paisa of temple revenues enter budget receipts, while hundreds of crores are spent for facilities for devotees and to support temple administration.