Supreme Court urged to sack Padmanabhaswamy Temple top official

New Delhi: Alleging that the conduct of Sree Padmanabhaswami temple executive officer K.N. Satheesh is a matter of grave concern, Sri Moolam Tirunal Varma of the Travancore Royal family has moved the Supreme Court seeking his removal from the post. In an application filed in the pending dispute, Sri Rama Varma pointed out that he had filed a similar application in 2015 and now he was bringing to the notice of the court the unbecoming conduct of the executive officer (EO) through his various decisions. He said it now appeared from various reports of the Administrative committee (AC) that even the committee faced grave difficulties in working with the EO and had made a number of adverse comments on him.

Mr Varma recalled the AC’s report on June 22, 2016 when it said “right from the very beginning this committee felt strongly that the style of functioning of the EO was far from satisfactory. Nevertheless the AC was tolerating him all along. “Now a point has reached where it has become impossible to proceed ... with this EO who is bound to execute the directives of this committee. It is distressing and disturbing to note that the EO is not carrying out the directives of the AC on matters relating to temple administration. “It appears that the EO is under a mistaken notion that he is not accountable to anybody, let alone the AC. His callous indifference towards the AC makes the administration of the temple extremely difficult, if not impossible.”

Mr Varma alleged that complaints against EO were many from devotees as well. The EO very often used foul language, unprintable, inside the temple violating the sanctity of the temple premises. He cited the report of former CAG Vinod Roy which said “the EO is not a member of the AC. His role had neither been defined nor was there any resolution, the minutes of the AC specifically delineating any of its day-to-day functions to the EO. This has led to confrontations between the EO and the AC, adversely affecting the smooth functioning of the temple”. Mr Varma said the serene atmosphere of the temple was being affected by hostilities between the EO and the AC and the staff of the temple, and sought a direction for the removal of Mr Satheesh as EO.