ACHARYA JAGDISHWARANAND AVADHUTA Vs. COMMISSIONER OF POLICE CALCUTTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in Writ Petition No. 6890/82, a monk of the Ananda Marga and currently General Secretary, Public Relations Department of the Ananda Marga Pracharak Sangh, has filed this petition under Article 32 of 'the Constitution for a direction to the Commissioner of Police, Calcutta and the State of West Bengal to allow processions to be carried in the public streets and meetings to be held in public places by the followers of the Ananda Marga cult accompanied by the performance of Tandava dance within the State of West Bengal. There are two connected writ petitions being Writ Petition Nos. 7204/82 and 3491/83 by the Diocese Secretary of West Bengal Region and another follower of Ananda Marga. All these petitions raise this common question and have been heard at a time. For convenience the petition by the General Secretary, Public Relations Department of the Ananda Marga Pracharak Sangh has been treated as the main petition and references in the judgment have been confined to it.

(2.) In the original petition certain factual assertions have been made and after counter affidavits were filed several further affidavits have been placed before the Court on behalf of the petitioner and counter affidavits too have been filed. Shorn of unnecessary details, the averments on behalf of the respective contenders are as follows: Shri Pravat Ranjan Sarkar otherwise known as Shri Ananda Murti, founded a socio-spiritual organisation claimed to have been dedicated to the service of humanity in different spheres of life such as physical, mental and spiritual, irrespective of caste, creed or colour, in the year 1955. In the initial period the Headquarters of this organisation was located near Ranchi in the State of Bihar but later it has been shifted to a place within the City of Calcutta in West Bengal. It has been pleaded that, Ananda Marga contains no dogmatic beliefs and teaches the yogic and spiritual science to every aspirant. In order to realise the SUPREME, Ananda Marga does not believe that it is necessary to abandon home, profession or occupation and spiritual sadhana is possible at any place and concurrently with fulfilling all duties and responsibilities of family life. It has been 'pleaded that Ananda Marga shows the way and explains the methods for spiritual advancement and this helps man to practice his dharma. According to the petitioner Lord Shiva had performed Tandava Dance in 108 forms but Shaivite literature has given details of 64 kinds only. Seven forms out of these 64 appear to have been commonly accepted and they are called Kalika, Gouri, Sandhya, Sambhara, Tripura, Urdhava and Ananda. The first of these forms elaborates the main aspects of Shiva while the seventh, i.e. the Ananda Tandava portrays all the manifold responsibilities of the Lord. Ananda Tandava is claimed to have taken place at Tillai, the ancient name of Chidambaram now situated in the State of Tamil Nadu. It is the petitioner's stand that the word Tandava is derived from the root Tandu which means to jump about and Shiva was the originator of Tandava about 6500 years ago. Ananda Murtiji, as the petitioner maintains, is the Supreme Father of the Ananda Margis. It is customary for every Ananda Margi after being duly initiated to describe Ananda Murtiji as his father. One of the prescriptions of religious rites to be daily performed by an Ananda Margi is Tandava Dance and this is claimed to have been so introduced from the year 1966 by the preceptor. This dance is to be performed with a skull, a small symbolic knife and a Trishul. It is also customary to hold a lathi and a damroo. It is explained that the knife or the sword symbolises the force which cuts through the fetters of the mundane world and allows human beings to transcend towards perfection; the trishul or the trident symbolises the fight against static forces in the three different spheres of human existence - spiritual, mental and physical; the lathi which is said to be a straight stick stands out as the symbol of straightforwardness or simplicity; the damroo is the symbol to bring out rhythmic harmony between eternal universal music and the entitative sound an the skull is the symbol of death reminding every man that life is short and, therefore, every moment of life should be utilised in the service of mankind and salvation should be sought. The petitioner has further maintained that Ananda Margis greet their spiritual preceptor Shri Ananda Murti with a dance of Tandava wherein one or two followers use the skull and the symbolic knife and dance for two or three minutes. At intervals processions are intented to be taken out in public places accompanied by the Tandava dance as a religious practice.

(3.) Though in subsequent affidavits and in the course of argument an attempt was, made by Mr. Tarkunde to assert that Ananda Marga is a new religious order, we do not think there is any justification to accept such a contention when it runs counter to the pleadings in paragraphs 4 and 17 of the writ petition. In paragraph 4 it was specifically pleaded that "Ananda Marga is more a denomination than an institutionalised religion", and in paragraph 17 it was pleaded that "Ananda Margis are Shaivites..." We shall, therefore, proceed to deal with this petition on the footing that, as pleaded by the petitioner, Ananda Marga is a religious denomination of the Shaivite order which is a well known segment of Hindu religion.