Kashish Jain
The Karnataka High Court directed the State Government into making a statement if it were willing to inquire into the fact whether the money collected by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev’s Isha Foundation of Isha Outreach was done by projecting Cauvery Calling as a project undertaken by the State Government.
The division bench made this observation after the Government clarified that Cauvery Calling is a project undertaken by the Isha Foundation and was not a project initiated by the Government of Karnataka. The Government of Karnataka is not funding this project. It is also not providing any government or private land for the same purpose.
The division bench comprised of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty.
Once the Government clarified, the bench took it into cognizance and asked:
“Now are you willing to hold an inquiry to ascertain whether any money was collected by projecting that this is a project of the Government of Karnataka? Are you willing to hold an inquiry?”
In an answer to this, the Advocate representing the Government replied that the State had issued a clarification that it was not a project of the State Government.
Chief Justice Oka stated:
“Now you have done it…when the state government after so many orders passed has taken a stand, they (Respondents) also have taken a stand belatedly that the project is not of the State Government. Now you make a statement and put an end to the petition. Appoint an officer and hold an inquiry whether any stage either by respondent 2 or respondent 3, collected money by projecting it as a project of the State Government”
The Chief Justice made it a point to add that the bench would then issue necessary instructions, unless and until the Government makes a statement that they (Karnataka Government) will make an inquiry and put the entire matter to rest.
The Court now directed the registry to record the affidavit filed by the State government clarifying and posted the matter for further hearing for later. The government issued the clarification only after the Court has passed repeated directions to make its stand very clear concerning the Government involvement with Cauvery Calling.
During the hearing, the counsel on behalf of Isha Outreach submitted a memo with stated that the Outreach had published on its website that made it clear that the project being undertaken was an initiative of the Isha Outreach.
The aforementioned directions were given by the Advocate during the hearing of a petition was filed by AV Amarnathan. The petition mentions that the Foundation plans to plant 253 crores tree saplings across the 639 km stretch of the Cauvery river bank. The foundation was said to be collecting a sum of Rs 42 per tree planting from the public. The petitioner claims that the bid of the organization to collect 10,626 crores from the public is a scam.
The bench had previously asked the Foundation to disclose the total amount it had collected for the Project and made it a point to clarify that they were not to harbor the impression that just because they are a spiritual organization they are not bound by law.
Later Isha Foundation told the court that this project was being dealt with by the subsidiary of the Foundation called Isha Outreach.
The Court had removed the petition from the cases by dismissing him as a party to the case and converted the case into a suo moto case.