MADURAI: A non-hereditary trustee of the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple has moved the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court alleging deletion of their names from the invitation prepared for the consecration scheduled to take place on September 17.
The petitioner, D Subbulakshmi, stated that the board of trustees had approved a proforma for the invitation based on the existing format, which gives due representation to all serving trustees by mentioning their names. However, temple authorities ignored it and printed an invitation deleting the names of trustees and just mentioning ‘temple administration’, she added.
She further claimed that the authorities have also carried out several activities relating to the consecration by either modifying the board of trustees’ decisions without approval or by altogether failing to place the matters before the board. She sought a direction to the authorities not to interfere with or obstruct her and the other trustees from discharging their statutory duties and responsibilities.
Counsels representing the HR&CE department denied the allegations. Additional advocate general PV Balasubramaniam contended that there is no statutory rule which stated that names of trustees ought to be mentioned in the invitation.
Counsel representing the joint commissioner stated that the invitation was finalized after getting approval from the commissioner under Section 27 of the HR & CE Act. Justice C Saravanan adjourned the case to Tuesday.