Wednesday, July 21, 2010

UPDATE: Bombay High Court Rules Hindu Deities MAY NOT Trade Securities

On July 12 we posted "Can Hindu Deities Open Brokerage Accounts Allowing them to Trade Securities?".
Well, the High Court has ruled. From the Economic Times:

No demat accounts for Hindu gods
MUMBAI: Let gods remain in temples and not enter the stock markets, said the Bombay High Court while dismissing a petition seeking orders to authorities to allow Hindu gods to open demat accounts.

A division Bench of Justice P B Majmudar and Justice Rajendra Sawant remarked that dealing in shares required some skill which could not be expected of a deity. The judges wondered that in the event of a fraud committed in the demat account, could the deity be hauled up. The court was hearing a petition filed by Sangli-based Ganpati Panchayatam Sansthan, whose presiding deities are Ganesh, Chintamaneshwardev, Chintamaneshwaridevi, Suryanarayandev and Laxminarayandev. According to the Sansthan's lawyers Anil Anturkar and Uday Warunjikar, the deities had PAN cards in their names, which makes them eligible for opening a demat account.

The court, however, observed that under the provisions of the law, it is not obligatory for the National Securities Depository Ltd. (NSDL) to provide a demat account to everyone who has a PAN card.

The Sansthan's advocates pointed to the old Hindu law which treats deities as persons. There have been instances of rulers bestowing land on the deities. They said that even the SC has given the nod to giving Hindu deities the right to acquire property. The petitioners argued that property included movable assets like shares and debentures.  ...MORE
Which is a pity. Last April Foreign Policy's Passport blog had the perfect prime broker for the Deities:

Teenage goddess to pursue banking career
What's a girl to do when she's not a living goddess anymore? Apparently aim for a career in finance:
Chanira Bajracharya, 15, has been the Kumari or “living goddess” of Patan, an ancient town south of Kathmandu, for nine years, blessing devotees at the temple and riding in decorated chariots 18 times a year during Hindu and Buddhist festivals.
Now, with her time as living goddess drawing to a close — the young virgin deities retire on reaching puberty — Bajracharya is contemplating a career in banking if she makes grades good enough to study commerce or accounting.
Last week she became the first living goddess ever to take the school leaving certificate examination, which was administered to her in her temple, which is housed in her home.
“I want to study commerce or accounting and be engaged in the banking sector,” she told Reuters in a rare interview, dressed in her ceremonial costumes, her eyes rimmed in black kohl and a third eye painted in the middle of her forehead....MORE