The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed further police action against preacher Jaggi Vasudev’s Isha Foundation centre in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore, reported Live Law.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also transferred the case concerning the foundation from the Madras High Court to the top court.
On Monday, the High Court sought details of the criminal cases registered against the Isha Foundation after hearing a petition filed by a retired professor named S Kamaraj.
Kamaraj had claimed that his two daughters – 42-year-old Geetha Kamaraj and 39-year-old Latha Kamaraj – were being held captive at the yoga centre in the foundation.
On Tuesday, almost 150 police officers conducted a search operation at the foundation in Coimbatore district’s Thondamuthur.
The Isha Foundation moved the Supreme Court on Thursday and sought an urgent hearing.
Appearing for the foundation, lawyer Mukul Rohatgi said that the High Court should not have passed the order as the petitioner’s daughters have stated that they are residing at the yoga centre of their own volition.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Union government, supported the Isha Foundation’s petition.
Issuing the stay on police action, the chief justice said: “You cannot let an Army or police into an establishment like this.”
The Supreme Court posted the matter for further hearing on October 18.
In his petition, S Kamaraj had alleged that the foundation was brainwashing individuals, converting them into monks and restricting their contact with their families.
The retired professor said that his elder daughter, who had a postgraduate degree in mechatronics from a university in the United Kingdom, earned a substantial salary before divorcing her husband in 2008. After her divorce, she began attending yoga classes at the foundation.
Subsequently, his younger daughter, who was a software engineer, followed her sister and eventually decided to stay at the centre permanently, according to Kamaraj’s petition. The foundation administered food and medicines to his daughters that dulled their cognitive faculties, the petitioner alleged, adding that this had led them to cut ties with their family.
The petitioner told the High Court that criminal cases regarding the foundation had been filed in the past, which suggested a pattern of misconduct and legal violations.
The High Court had asked why Vasudev was encouraging young women to tonsure their heads and live like monks at his foundation when he had ensured that his own daughter was married and “well-settled”, The Hindu reported.
The High Court had directed Additional Public Prosecutor E Raj Thilak to submit a report listing all criminal cases pending against the foundation by October 4.
The top court on Thursday asked Tamil Nadu Police to submit the status report to it.
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