The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department succeeded in stopping an Executive Officer (EO), who was charged with embezzling ₹1.37 crore of temple funds, from retiring voluntarily before going through the Departmental inquiry.
A Division Bench comprising Justices D. Krishnakumar and K. Kumaresh Babu reversed an Order passed by a single judge of the High Court in 2021 allowing the EO R. Muthusamy to retire from service.
The Bench agreed with Special Government Pleader (HR&CE) N.R.R. Arun Natarajan that the single judge had erred in allowing the writ petition filed by the EO and letting him retire from service voluntarily despite his request having been rejected by the Commissioner.
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Writing for the bench, Justice Babu said, although it was wrong to have calculated that time so as to accord the voluntary retirement refusal had also effectively taken place within requisite three months since requisition after three months of submission according to one man tribunal who took into account a perusal of materials placed before him.
Hereditary trustee
Still touching on HR&CE Department matters, a GO dated February 1, 2024 deleting G.Prem Anand as hereditary trustee Sri Vengeeswarar, Azhagar Perumal and Nagathamman Koil Devasthanam at Vadapalani, Chennai was affirmed by Judge N.Anand Venkatesh.
Judge Venkatesh expressed concurrence with Mr. Natarajan’s position that the petitioner had acted contrary to HR & CE Act together with its rules which were made under it when he leased out ten shops belonging to Devasthanam without obtaining consent of competent authority of HR&CE department.
Again justice venkatesh opined that since this petitioner committed another serious offence of having collected funds from the temple goers using renovation works for the same without getting appropriate permission from relevant authorities, he was not interested in intervening with a G.O.
