Andhra Pradesh High court pulls up TTD for setting up panel on assets without head
The court accepted the objections raised by counsel and opined that the committee without a head would serve no purpose
Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has observed that the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams forming a committee to look after its assets will not serve any purpose as long as the panel did not have a head.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami and justice C. Praveen Kumar held the hearing on the TTD case on Monday.
TTD counsel said it has constituted an eight-member committee including two retired high court judges M. Seetharama Murthy and K. Sreedhar Rao. Counsel also stated that the TTD has released a white paper giving details of its 1,128 immovable properties and uploaded such details on its website.
However, petitioner’s counsel Balaji Yelamanjula contested the proceedings issued by TTD on December 9, 2020, appointing the committee with eight members without mentioning who its head would be, and said this was of no use. He informed the court that the TTD mentioned Sringeri Sharada Peetham chief executive officer Gowri Sankar as the first name in the committee and placed the retired high court judges’ names in second and third place. By doing so, TTD showed disregard to the two retired judges, counsel argued.
The court accepted the objections raised by counsel and opined that the committee without a head would serve no purpose. The order of priority given to the judges flouted the norms of protocol for judges. The court also noticed an error in the proceedings, stating that K. Sreedhar Rao was the chief justice of Gauhati high court when he retired. The court posted the next hearing to March 12.