The State government has denied having excluded Sivachariyars (Saivite priests) and Bhattachariyars (Vaishnavite priests), who took to priesthood after traditional training under gurukuls, from the zone of consideration while appointing priests to various temples governed by the Agama sastras (ancient religious prescriptions).
Appearing before Justice Anita Sumanth, Advocate-General R. Shunmugasundaram on Monday said temples under the control of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department was accepting applications from traditional priests too, along with those who had undergone a certificate course in Agama sastras at government institutions set up to train people from all castes.
However, advocate P. Valliappan, representing the All-India Adi Saiva Sivachariyargal Seva Sangam, said the government had recently “chased out” 24 traditional priests from various temples and filled the vacancies with those who had completed the certificate course. “The 24 priests are virtually on the streets now,” the counsel said, accusing the government of having violated court orders.
He said Justice Sumanth had granted an order of status quo on the writ petition filed by the Sivachariyargal Sangam on August 8. But since only one temple had been made a respondent to the case, the government had gone ahead and appointed new archakars to 24 other temples, he said.
The counsel said now the Sivachariyargal Sangam had taken out an application to include 37 other temples, including the Subramaniaswamy temple in Tiruchendur, the Prasanna Venkatachalapathi temple in Thuraiyur and the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple in Madurai as respondents to the case filed by it and urged the court to allow the impleading petition.
Opposing the plea, the A-G said Chennai-based advocate S. Sridharan had already filed a public interest litigation petition against the appointment of people from different castes as temple priests and had insisted upon continuing the traditional practice of appointing people from a particular sect as priests.
That PIL petition was slated to be listed for hearing on Wednesday.
Therefore, the present writ petition filed by the Sivachariyargal Sangam could also be tagged along with the PIL petition pending before the first Division Bench of the court, he insisted. Accepting his plea, and because the High Court Registry too had put up a note in that regard, the judge said she would order placing the present matter too before the Chief Justice.
