Former Supreme Court judge Justice KT Thomas on Wednesday, August 31, criticised retired Supreme Court judge Justice Indu Malhotra’s remark claiming that Hindu temples were being “taken over” by Communist governments. In an interview to Malayalam newspaper Mathrubhumi, Justice Thomas said that Justice Malhotra might have been ‘misled’ and that should have verified the facts before she made such comments in public. He added that he didn’t think Malhotra was biased in the matter but had been given wrong information by someone.
On August 29, a video of Justice Malhotra saying that Communist governments were “taking over” Hindu temples across the country went viral on social media. The video seemed to have been filmed outside the Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, where the retired judge was interacting with devotees. In the video, a woman is heard telling the judge, “We are so proud of you ma’am…You guys have done a wonderful job”. The devotees were talking about the 2020 Supreme Court judgment — which Justice Malhotra was a co-author of — upholding the rights of the Travancore royal family to maintain and manage the temple.
Justice Malhotra responded saying “...how can you exclude them from the administration? That’s what happens with these Communist governments, they just want to take over because of the revenue. Their problem is the revenue. All over they have taken over, all over, only Hindu temples. So Justice Lalit and I said no, we will not allow it,” she says in the video.
The video went viral and sparked a debate online. Kerala’s former Finance Minister and veteran CPI(M) leader Thomas Isaac dismissed the judge’s remarks in a tweet and said: “Justice Indu Malhotra is ignorant of public finance of Kerala government, and worse, deeply prejudiced against communists. Not a paise of temple revenues enter budget receipts, while hundreds of crores are spent for facilities for devotees and to support temple administration.”