New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday transferred to itself the petition pending before the Madras High Court, in which the high court had directed the police to report on criminal cases registered against the Isha Yoga Foundation.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's Isha Foundation moved the Supreme Court against an order passed by the high court, seeking a report from the Tamil Nadu government on all criminal cases registered against him and the foundation.
After hearing submissions from the foundation’s counsel, the apex court decided to transfer the case from the Madras High Court to itself and also asked the local police to submit the status report before it. The apex court has also restrained the police from taking any further action.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the foundation, mentioned the matter before a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and sought a hearing on it.
During the hearing, the CJI said, “You can't let police or army to enter a place like this….”. The bench, also comprising justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said what if the court were to ask the district legal services authority official to converse with the women?
Rohatgi said that there is someone behind all this and added that the habeas corpus petition filed by the mother of two women, who are now monks, was disposed of 8 years ago. Rohatgi said, that after 8 years, now, the father has come back and the high court has ordered an inquiry despite the women monks expressing their desire to stay at the foundation. The apex court said it could ask the DLSA officials to talk to these women and report back to the court.
The CJI observed, “We will stay the high court order because it was done without any prima facie reason….”.
Rohatgi said the women are connected online and they are willing to make a statement right away. One of the two women appeared online. The woman said she is willing to stay at the foundation. “We are here at Isha Yoga Centre by our own will. And, we also told the honourable judge of the high court that this harassment from our father’s side has been continuing for the past 8 years”, said one of the two women, who appeared virtually before the bench.
The bench said it will interact with the two women in chambers before issuing an interim order.
After interacting with the two women monks, the bench said the women informed the judges that they are staying voluntarily and they did not want to leave the ashram. “Second, they said the police who were there for two days’ had left last night. The entire police team (150 policemen) have left the ashram”, said the bench. Rohatgi requested the apex court to stay the high court order.
On Tuesday, 150 police personnel led by an additional superintendent of police rank officer from Coimbatore Rural Police entered the Isha Foundation’s ashram to conduct inquiries.
The high court passed the order on a habeas corpus petition filed by Dr S Kamaraj, a retired professor, alleging that his two daughters, Geetha, 42, and Latha, 39, were being held captive at the Foundation in Coimbatore. The high court ordered the police to conduct an inquiry and file a report.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the central government, opposed the oral observations, which were made by the high court for having far-reaching consequences.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, representing the Tamil Nadu government, informed the bench that the police team at the Ashram were accompanied by officers of other departments.
The apex court pointed out that the women also said they were also free to travel outside and their parents also visited them periodically, and one of them said she participated in a 10 km marathon in Hyderabad recently.
The court also directed for listing of the matter on October 18 and also ordered the father of the two women to appear before it either virtually or physically.
Following the high court order on September 30, a multi-departmental team led by K Karthikeyan, Coimbatore Rural District Superintendent of Police, consisting of officials from the Social Welfare Department and the District Child Protection Committee had on October 1 launched the inquiry at the sprawling premises of the Isha Foundation in Thondamuthur.
The police had sought details about a case filed under the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act last week against a doctor allegedly working with the foundation.
