Dharmasthala ‘mass burials’: Karnataka HC sets aside trial court’s gag order on media reports

The Karnataka High Court on Friday set aside a gag order issued by a Bengaluru civil court that had barred media outlets, YouTube channels and individuals from publishing reports or commentary related to allegations of mass graves, disappearances and crime against women and students over the past two decades in the temple town of Dharmasthala, the Hindustan Times reported.

Justice M Nagaprasanna observed that the public’s right to know cannot be curtailed, especially in a case involving allegations of serious institutional failure and possible criminal wrongdoing, India Today reported.

This came in response to a petition filed by the YouTube channel Kudla Rampage, which had challenged the civil court’s ex-parte injunction – an order passed without hearing the other side – on July 18.

The injunction, issued by the Additional City Civil and Sessions Court in Bengaluru, had been granted on a plea filed by Harshendra Kumar D, secretary of the Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Education Society and brother of Bharatiya Janata Party MP D Veerendra Heggade. The Heggade family manages the Dharmasthala Manjunathaswamy Temple and the institutions affiliated with it.

The civil court order had directed the immediate deletion or de-indexing of 8,842 online links related to the mass grave allegations in Dharmasthala and also restrained the publication of any “defamatory content” against the Heggade family.

Quashing the order on Friday, the High Court...

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