Jayendra Saraswathi

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.

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

On account of his sacerdotal office and his profound knowledge of the Hindu religion, he commands wide respect in India, particularly in religious Hindu Brahmin circles. The Kanchi Math has grown into a strong organization under him. Further, the Kanchi Mutt is also widely patronised by many NRIs, particularly from the U.S.A. The Kanchi Mutt runs many schools, eye clinics and hospitals, Shankara Nethralaya in Chennai and Guwahati, Assam, and the Children's Hospital, Hindu Mission Hospital and the Tamil Nadu Hospital. The Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu enacted a law to ban religious conversion, in keeping with the Shankaracharya's oft-expressed concerns. The Tamil Nadu government also started to enforce a pre-existing ban on animal sacrifice in temples, echoing concerns raised by the pontiff. There was widespread objection to this unilateral government decision because of the very wide spectrum of practices in Hinduism. Sacrificing animals in the temples was very prevalent in many Hindu castes. It was alluded that the chief minister being a Brahmin lady did not heed to the majority non-Brahmin sections in Hinduism. After a big electoral loss suffered by the chief minister, she lifted the ban unilaterally. The government portrayed the ban withdrawal as heeding to people's sentiment and sought to delink it from the comprehensive electoral defeat.

The Shankaracharya was arrested on November 11, 2004 and charged by Tamil Nadu state prosecutors with being a conspirator in the murder of a temple manager, Sankararaman. On January 10, 2005, he was able to secure bail from the Supreme Court of India although lower courts refused his bail application three times. On 26 October 2005, the Supreme Court of India transferred the case out of the state of Tamil Nadu state to the adjoining Union Territory of Pondicherry. The case has dragged on for more than six years and trial is on-going as of January 2012.

The Shankaracharya's arrest, being a sensational case, attracted widespread media coverage, prompting accusations by Uma Bharti, Shobha Vasudevan and by the seer himself of sensationalism and trial by media. The interest of the media seemed to wane after successive verdicts of the High Courts in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu as well as the Supreme Court of India. Particularly, the High Court of Andhra Pradesh found that the conduct of the media was improper.. As of January 2010, many state witnesses in the case had turned hostile, claiming Tamil Nadu state police had forced them to depose against the Shankaracharya and his disciple Shri Shankara Vijayendra Saraswathi.

Recently, around December 2011, news were reported that the prime accused Jayendra Saraswathi was negotiating a favourable verdict with the Pondicherry trial court judge for cash consideration. The recordings of the purported telephonic conversations between Jayendra Saraswathi and the trial court judge were also widely played out in the news media. Jayendra Saraswathi has denied all such allegations that he was subverting justice or indulging in clandestine negotiations with the trial judge. In February,2012 Forensic Expert appointed by Chennai High Court opined that contextual discontinuity and abrupt ending of the conversation found in the audio files indicated the possibility of editing of the source audio files so the material available and gathered did not contain anything relating to the facts in issue (Not Proven)and Cyber crimes AC to probe tapes, still further. The Case in Puducherrry is continuing with a New Judge