The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the order of the Madras High Court passed on May 22 which had issued a direction to police in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, to probe Isha Foundation.
A bench headed by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud ordered that "police shall not take any action" in furtherance of the directions contained in the impugned judgment of the Madras High Court.
The Bench, comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, transferred to itself the proceedings pending before the Madras HC and asked Coimbatore police to file its status report before the apex court. The matter will be heard next on October 18.
The Isha Foundation, Coimbatore-based, was on Wednesday quoted as saying it does not ask people to take up monkhood or 'sanyas' and hosts thousands of people not being monks or sanyasis.
The organisation's statement followed a detailed probe by the Tamil Nadu Police in the ashram on Tuesday after an order from the High Court.
The inquiry was conducted by Coimbatore's Superintendent of Police K. Karthikeyan, involving 150 police personnel on charges related to the captivity of two women. The high court had directed the state government and Coimbatore rural police to probe all allegations against the Isha Foundation, after a former professor of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, S. Kamaraj, had moved a habeas corpus petition that his two daughters, Geetha Kamaraj and Latha Kamaraj, were kept under captivity there.
A Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and V. Sivagnanam, while dealing with the case, questioned the daughters of the petitioner and decided to investigate the case further. The Justice Subramaniam led the Bench which said that the court, exercising the writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution, was meant to do complete justice and it was essential to get to the bottom of the case. It directed the Additional Public Prosecutor E Raj Thilak to file a status report on or before October 4 listing all the cases related to the Isha Foundation, after the lawyer for the petitioner contended that there were multiple cases concerning the Isha Foundation and that a doctor serving in the organization was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses, or POCSO, Act.
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