HYDERABAD: A division bench of the High Court on Wednesday directed the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams not to remove from service the non-Hindu employees working in the TTD and its temples and institutions until further orders. Besides, the bench directed the non-Hindu staff to give explanation to the show-cause notices issued to them by the TTD.
The bench, comprising acting chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice K Vijaya Lakshmi, was admitting the petition filed by several Christian and Muslim employees working in the TTD challenging Rule 9(4) of the TTD employees service conditions which prohibit recruitment of non-Hindus in any post in TTD and also in the temples, hospitals and educational institutions under its control. The petitioners’ counsel had earlier submitted that the aggrieved employees had been working in the TTD like nurses, gardeners, attenders, drivers and so on without any complaint for the last several years but were now sought to be removed from service. These employees had even given an undertaking to respect the Hindu tradition. Bowing to pressures from some Hindu organisations, they were issued show-cause notices.
In fact, they were appointed through direct recruitment only after verification of their certificates, he pointed out. TTD counsel Balaji Vadera submitted that the petitioner employees, at the time of joining the service, had given an undertaking that they would not indulge in propagation of other religions, and urged the court to direct them to stick to their undertaking. Meanwhile, the bench said that it was for the TTD to take action against them if they violated their undertaking. It appeared that notices issued by TTD were not appreciable and court would examine its validity, it said.