HC sets aside inquiry initiated against Aurobindo Ashram Trust in 2012

A Deputy Collector had decided to inquire into complaints lodged by the then MLA Ashok Anand and ashram inmate Vishnu Lalit Singh

The Madras High Court has set aside an inquiry initiated by Puducherry Deputy Collector (Revenue) in 2012 with respect to the affairs of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust following complaints lodged by the then Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), Ashok Anand, and an inmate Vishnu Lalit Singh.

Disposing of a writ petition filed by the trust in 2012 and pending since then, Justice Anita Sumanth rejected a request made by Additional Government Pleader (Puducherry) B. Ramaswamy to permit the revenue officials to continue with the inquiry which got stalled due to the pending writ petition.

The judge said, she would normally not stand in the way of an inquiry being conducted by competent authorities in the wake of grave charges such as sexual harassment of women and children in the ashram. However, in the present case, there was no justification to grant such permission, she added.

“The trajectory of events, especially the fact that the petitioner trust has been the target of multi-pronged litigations before several fora, do leave me with the impression that there is no justification and no provocation as on date to continue the proceedings under the impugned (under challenge) notice,” she wrote.

The judge went on to state: “The petitioner has, in the interests of disclosure, placed on record several unsavoury events and incidents that had taken place in the Ashram premises. These include allegations of sexual harassment, suicide of some inmates and serious malpractices in the functioning of the school run by the Ashram.”

She said: “Without doubt, these situations call for swift and serious action. However, these instances are of yesteryears contemporaneous with the filing of earlier writ petitions and civil suits that have been, after detailed discussion, been closed in favour of the petitioner trust by the courts. I see no reason to re-visit those instances now.“

Justice Sumanth also recalled that immediately after the filing of the writ petition in 2012, the High Court had appointed P.R. Raman, a retired judge of the Kerala High Court, to inquire into the allegations against the trust. Thereafter, he was replaced by T.L. Viswantha Iyer, another retired judge of the Kerala High Court.