Jayendra Saraswathi

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Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal (born July 18, 1935 as Subramanyam Mahadeva Iyer) is the 69th Shankaracharya (guru and head or pontiff (Peetadhipathi) of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham), a Hindu religious order.

Subramanyam Mahadeva Iyer was nominated by his predecessor, Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati as his successor and was given the title Sri Jayendra Saraswathi on March 22, 1954. He is one of the leading religious figures in Hinduism today.

As the head of the order, he has taken an active role in the promotion of education and social welfare. He was instrumental in establishing many schools and educational institutions to cater to the needs of poor. He established many hospitals including the Shankara Nethralaya in Chennai and Guwahati, Assam, and the Children's Hospital, Hindu Mission Hospital and the Tamilnadu Hospital. These provide free and low cost medical care for the poor and needy. [1] He involved himself in the removal of caste based differences in Hindu society, he was the first Shankaracharya to visit the homes of "lower" caste Hindus. [2] He has also attempted to mediate in the resolution of the Ram Janmabhoomi issue. He has also publicly opposed proselytization practised by Christian missionaries in India, [3] which later resulted in the Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu enacting a law to ban religious conversion by force or inducement[4]. The Tamil Nadu government also started to enforce the a preexisting ban on animal sacrifice in temples[5], echoing concerns raised by Jayendra Saraswathi.

He was arrested on November 11, 2004 and charged by state prosecutors of conspiring in the murder of a temple manager, Sankararaman. On January 10, 2005, the Supreme Court of India granted him bail, after finding that there was no prima facie case made out against him. [6]

On 26th October 2005, the Supreme Court of India transferred the case out of Tamil Nadu state to the union territory of Pondicherry. The Supreme Court found that the actions of the state authorities gave rise to reasonable apprehension that the accused will not get justice in the state. The Supreme Court also recorded that the State government was intolerant to the lawyers, opposition, the Press, the media and any member of the Public who had expressed dissention in the matter of the arrest and intimidated them. [7].

The Shankaracharya's arrest attracted a great deal of media coverage, prompting accusations of a trial by media, which kind of coverage slowed down only after the successive verdicts of the High courts in Andhra Pradesh and Chennai and the Supreme Court of India. The High Court of Andhra Pradesh found that the media organisations' conduct was improper.[8]