CHENNAI: Justice J Kanakaraj, a retired judge of the Madras High Court, has been nominated again as the administrator of the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC) to look after the day-to-day affairs of the church until further orders.
A Division Bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and T Raja made the appointment while passing interim orders on an appeal from MS Arivannal.
The TELC consists of about 120 Pastorates and churches in TN, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Pondicherry. It also owns landed properties in various places and was running several educational institutions. It is also mired in legal battles among its members.
While so, the tenure of the Church Council Triennium came to an end on May 2 last. In view of this and keeping in mind the larger interest of the TELC members and also as a stop-gap arrangement, the bench again nominated Justice Kanakaraj as the administrator to supervise the administration of the TELC untill further orders.
The bench directed the administrator to avail himself of the assistance of one or more persons of the TELC, an advocate and an accountant to assist him in the discharge of his functions.
The administrator is empowered to discharge the secular powers of the Bishop and other powers of the president, secretary and treasurer of the church council, for proper administration. He is also empowered to operate bank accounts, disburse funds for all routine and regular expenses and receive rents and other amounts due to the TELC.
The bench also made it clear that the actions of the administrator shall not be called in question by any court other than this court. Adding that the administrator is also at liberty to avail himself of the assistance of police and educational authorities, the bench adjourned the matter.