DEHRADUN: Bharatiya Janta Party MP Subramanian Swamy will be filing a public interest litigation opposing the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devshtanam Management Bill 2019 which was passed by the Uttarakhand legislative assembly last year.
Priests from Uttarakhand after meeting Swamy on Monday said that he has agreed to take up their case. Swamy happens to be a Supreme Court lawyer.
Shiv Prakash Maharaj, priest of the Gangotri Dham, said, "The government is interfering in centuries-old tradition which cannot be tolerated. The new law by the government is only to seize the wealth of the temple which comes as offering from devotees."
Vinod Shukla, president of Kedar Sabha, an organization of priests of Kedarnath shrine, said, "We have presented our grievances to Swamy ji and he has agreed to file a public interest litigation in the Uttarakhand high court and if need be in the Supreme Court."
Last year, in December, priests associations of Uttarakhand in a blood-written letter to the Prime Minister of India requested him to intervene in a matter concerning the new law about the management of Char Dhams.
The associations in the letter stated that the law aims to destroy the traditional system of the Char Dham including the Badrinath shrine. They had further requested the PM to instruct the state government to roll back the law.
The priests also organised a protest march on December 18 in Uttarkashi and on December 20 in Srinagar.
Earlier, in December 2019, in a big win for the government, the bill related to management of Char Dham was passed in the Uttarakhand state assembly.
After a discussion of over two hours, the name of the bill was changed from Char Dham Shrine Board Management Bill 2019 to Uttarakhand Char Dham Devshtanam Management Bill 2019.
The state government had called a meeting of all stakeholders including traders, hotel owners, priests bodies and others to discuss objections to the law. The state government promised to consider and if need be amend the proposed law through which the Char Dham and other 51 temples will be governed.
The priests have been alleging that the government wants to take over the shrines and deprive them of their traditional rights.