RATHEESH. K Vs. COMMISSIONER MALABAR DEVASWOM BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners who are devotees of Kadampuzha Bhagavathy Temple which is a controlled institution under the 7th respondent Malabar Devaswom Board filed this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, seeking the following reliefs:

(2.) Going by the averments in the writ petition the petitioners are ardent devotees of Kadampuzha Bhagavathy Temple situated at Tirur Taluk in Malappuram District. They are permanent residents of Kadampuzha. The petitioners and their family members regularly go to the Kadampuzha Temple to offer their prayers and also take active interests in the welfare of the temple. There is no Trustee Board at present for the temple. The temple is being managed by the 3rdrespondent Executive Officer. The 4threspondent assumed charge as Executive Officer of the Temple on 1/11/2021. He is to retire on 31/5/2023. There were serious and grave charges against the 4threspondent during his service period. As per the Commissioner's proceedings bearing No.J1.6507/2014/MDB dtd. 29/10/2014, a memo of charges was given to the 4threspondent. As per this charge memo, the 4th respondent while working as Head Accountant, in the year 2011 had for his personal interest, without the knowledge of the superiors, on a holiday, entered into the office of the Commissioner and had removed the attendance register of the month of May. Moreover, he had forged the attendance register by forging the signatures of the other employees. The allegation was that he had done this to destroy the evidence against him. However, though the allegations raised against him were very serious in nature and required an in-depth enquiry, it is understood that no enquiry was conducted. It is understood that the 4threspondent pleaded guilty to the charges and the Commissioner as per its order dtd. 9/1/2015 had recommended major punishment on the 4threspondent. But, due to the high influence exerted by the 4threspondent, even after he pleaded guilty to the grave charges, only a minor punishment of barring his increment for one year alone was made. This is an order which was passed on 14/11/2016 by the Commissioner. Irked by the simple punishment imposed by the 4threspondent for such grave action, devotees of the temples had sent representations to the Commissioner even as early as in the year 2019. One such representation is Ext.P1 dtd. 29/3/2019.

(3.) On 28/2/2023 when this matter came up for consideration, after hearing the submissions made by the learned Senior Counsel for the petitioners, learned Standing Counsel for the Malabar Devaswom Board and the learned Senior Government Pleader, the writ petition was admitted. The learned Standing Counsel for the Malabar Devaswom Board took notice for respondents 1, 2 and 7. The learned Senior Government pleader took notice for respondents 5 and 6. Urgent notice by special messenger was ordered to respondents 3 and 4. The 4th respondent Executive Officer of Kadampuzha Bhagavathy Devaswom was directed to be personally present in Court at 2.00 p.m. on 3/3/2023 along with the files relating to Ext.P5 memorandum of understanding and Ext.P7 order dtd. 15/12/2022.