The Supreme Court on Thursday (October 3) restrained the Tamil Nadu police from taking any further action against the Isha Yoga Centre run by spiritual leader Sadhguru at Coimbatore.
A three-judge bench presided by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud passed the stay order after the foundation approached the Supreme Court against a Madras High Court order directing the Tamil Nadu government to submit details of all criminal cases registered against them.
The Supreme Court transferred to itself the petition pending before the Madras High Court and further asked the Police to submit the status report to it. The matter will be next heard on October 18.
The Coimbatore Rural Police on Tuesday stormed into the Isha Foundation’s ashram with 150 personnel to conduct the investigation. It came a day after the Madras High Court sought a report on all criminal cases registered against the Foundation and ordered a probe.
Delivering the stay order, the apex court bench remarked, “You can’t let an army of police into an institution like this.”
What’s The Case Against Isha Foundation?
The Madras High Court ordered the probe after a retired professor S Kamaraj filed a petition, alleging that his daughters Geeta and Lata were “brainwashed to reside at Isha Yoga Centre” in Coimbatore. He further accused the foundation of not allowing them to maintain contact with the family.
During the hearing, the High Court expressed serious doubts about why Sadhguru had given his daughter in marriage and made her settle well in life but was encouraging other women to renounce their material life.
“We want to know why a person who had given his daughter in marriage and made her settle well in life is encouraging the daughters of others to tonsure their heads and live the life of a hermitess. That is the doubt,” the Bench remarked.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi mentioned the matter before the Supreme Court bench and said, “These are issues of religious freedom. This is a very urgent and serious case. This is about Isha Foundation, there is Sadhguru who is very revered and has lakhs of followers. High Court cannot start such enquiries on oral assertions.”
SC Interacts With Two Women
The apex court delivered the stay order restraining police action against the foundation after interacting with the two women who cleared that they were residing in the ashram of their own free will and that nobody was detaining them.
One of the women appearing online told the bench, “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.”
Earlier to the apex court hearing the matter, the Isha Foundation clarified its stand in the case and said that it was founded by Sadhguru to impart yoga and spirituality to people, adding that the foundation doesn’t believe in restricting anyone from their freedom of choosing own path.
“We believe that adult individual human beings have the freedom and the wisdom to choose their path. We do not ask people to get married or take up monkhood as these are individual choices. Isha Yoga Center is home to thousands who are not monks and a few who have taken Brahmacharya or Monkhood,” it said.
“Despite this, the Petitioner wanted the monks to be produced before the Court and the monks have presented themselves before the court. They have clearly stated that they are staying in Isha Yoga Center of their own volition. Now that the matter is seized by the court, we hope the truth will prevail and there is an end to all the unnecessary controversies created,” it added.
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