Five held for attempting to block Karnataka CM's car
Kannur: Five activists belonging to the ruling CPI(M) and Opposition Congress' youth wings, have been arrested in connection with the incidents relating to waving of black flags and attempting to block Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa's car at nearby Pazhayangadi.
While three belong to the CPI(M)'s Students Federation of India (SFI), two are from the Youth Congress, police said on Wednesday. The five have been arrested and remanded to 14 days judicial custody, they said.
Cases under various IPC sections, including 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharging of his duty and unlawful assembly, have been charged against the five.
Police had taken into custody 28 workers belonging to SFI, DYFI, Youth Congress and KSU in connection with waving of black flags, raising slogans and attempting to stop the car of Karnataka Chief Minister at Pazhayangadi on Tuesday.
Of these, five were arrested and remanded while the remaining were let off on station bail, a police official said.
The activists were protesting the "illegal" detention of Kerala journalists in Mangaluru last week while covering the death of two people in police firing during the agitations over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act.
The BJP has alleged that it was a "planned" attack by "Communist goons". The activists surrounded the CM's car, raised slogans and tried to stop the vehicle. Some of them came in front of the vehicle, but were removed by police. Yediyurappa was on his way to Madayikavu temple when the incident occurred.
On Monday too, he had faced an attempted black flag protest by Youth Congress activists in Thiruvananthapuram.
The senior BJP leader, on a personal visit to temples and religious places in Kerala, termed the attempt to block his car as a "conspiracy by vested interests" and a 'heinous' act and said it was wrong to blame all Keralites for it.
BJP had accused the CPI(M)-led LDF government of failure to provide adequate security cover to the visiting Chief Minister and said the incident was "planned".
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SC to hear pleas for reviewing wages of priests, temple staff
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea to constitute a judicial commission or an expert committee to review the wages and other benefits given to priests, 'sevadars' and temple staff in state-controlled temples.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta is likely to hear the PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay.
The plea, filed through advocate Ashwani Dubey, seeks directions to the Centre and states to constitute a judicial commission or an expert committee to review the remuneration and other benefits given to the priests and temple staff in state-controlled temples.
"Petitioner also seeks a declaration that priests and temple staff are employee' under Section 2(k) of the Code on Wages, 2019. Petitioner submits that once the State assumes the administrative, economic and financial control over temples, an employer-employee relationship arises and denial of dignified wages to priests and temple staff violates the right to livelihood guaranteed under Article 21," it said.
Upadhyay said the cause of action accrued on April 4, when he went to Varanasi to attend a public programme and after performing 'Rudrabhishek' in the Kashi Vishwanath temple, which is controlled by the state, he came to know that even the minimum wages to live with dignity are not given to the priests and temple staff.
"Recently, in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, priests and temple staff organised a large-scale protest demanding the minimum wages. Priests and temple staff are not getting even the minimum wage prescribed by the State for unskilled and semi-skilled workers. This is a systemic exploitation. State is acting as a model employer through the endowments department, but violating the minimum wages Act and the directive principles of state policy (Article 43)," it said.
The plea further said the continued refusal to meet the minimum wages with the 2026 inflation-adjusted cost of living index has forced the petitioner to seek judicial intervention to prevent the further marginalisation of priests and temple staff.
Upadhyay further said the precarious nature of livelihood was starkly exposed on February 7, 2025, when a Tamil Nadu department issued a circular at the 'Dandayuthapani Swami Temple' in Madurai, strictly prohibiting priests from accepting 'dakshina' in 'aarti plates'.
"It is necessary to state that priests in such temples often receive no formal salary from the State and rely entirely on 'Dakshina'; the State's administrative order directly threatened them with starvation. Although withdrawn due to public outrage, the incident highlights the State's arbitrary power over the survival of the priests. This is also a bitter truth that States are controlling lakhs of temples but not a single mosque or church," the PIL claimed.
The petition, alternatively, sought direction to the Centre and states to take appropriate steps for the welfare of priests, sevadars and other temple staff in the spirit of the Allahabad High Court's earlier judgments.
