HD appoints administrators to control affairs of Diocesan Council and TDTA
Chennai: In order to give a quietus to the issue relating to the administration and management of the Diocesan Council as well as Tirunelveli Diocesan Trust Association (TDTA), the Madras high court has appointed Justice N.Paul Vasanthakumar, a former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir high court and Justice P.Jyothimani, a retired judge of the Madras high court as the administrators of Diocesan Council of Diocese of Tirunelveli and TDTA.
Justice R.Mahadevan appointed the administrators and gave 10 directions while disposing of a batch of over 30 petitions from R.Jayakumar Jayaraj and others.
“Considering the overall facts and circumstances of the case, this court is of the firm opinion that Justice N.Paul Vasanthakumar, Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir (Retd) and Justice P.Jyothimani (retd) could be appointed as Administrators to control the affairs of the Diocesan Council and TDTA an effective truce between the newly elected members of the executive committee and the bishop/chairman and the financial administrator appointed by the CSI Synod, at the instance of the bishop”, the judge added and made the appointments.
The judge said the administrators are at liberty to appoint a retired district judge for assistance in rendering their functions as administrators. The executive committee of the Diocesan Council elected on April 23, 2017, with the bishop (J.J.Christdoss) as its chairman shall henceforth function, under the guidance, supervision and control of the administrators until further orders, the judge added.
The judge said the elected members of the executive committee of Diocesan Council, shall hand over the relevant records/files to the administrators within 2 weeks. The bishop/chairman/concerned parties shall hand over all the records relating the transfers, postings and appointments made on and from April 23, 2017, to the administrators. The administrators shall scrutinize these records, hear the parties affected by such transfers, postings and appointments and pass appropriate orders, within 6 weeks. Those orders shall be binding on the bishop/chairman, the Diocesan Council and its executive committee and persons who were subjected to such transfers and postings, the judge added.
The judge said since this court granted an interim stay and thereby restrained R.Devadoss Gnanaraj, to act as treasurer of TDTA, the registrar of companies removed the name of the treasurer from the directorship from September 23, 2017, and thus the administrators shall consider the appointment made to the post of treasurer of TDTA and if they find any irregularity in such appointment, the same shall be looked into by them as it was not an elected post and necessary/appropriate orders shall be passed in that regard, which shall be binding on all, after affording due opportunity of hearing to all the parties concerned and taking into consideration the fact that the church committee constituted by the bishop alone shall give proposal for the post of treasurer. The existing arrangement with regard to the financial aspect shall go on and the same shall be countersigned/ approved by the administrators, the judge added.
The judge said all meetings of the executive committee shall be held henceforth, under the supervision and control of the administrators. If there was any conflict of opinion between the bishop/chairman on the one hand and the elected Diocesan Council/executive committee on the other hand, the Administrators shall find out what was good for the institution and take appropriate decision. The decision of the administrators shall be final and binding on the executive committee of the Diocesan Council and the bishop.
“Since the flow of funds and control over properties whose values keep mounting, have been the root cause for all the problems faced by the institutions and also since the administrators may find it extremely difficult to look after even the distribution of the monthly salaries to the staff of all the institutions, this court is of the view that the salaries of the teaching and non-teaching staff of the educational institutions, run by Diocese of Tirunelveli and TDTA, with the grant-in-aid received from the state government, shall be arranged to be paid directly to the employees through the correspondents as countersigned by any one of the administrator”, the judge added.
The judge said in so far as the issue relating to the financial management as well as collection of donations was concerned, the day-to-day affairs relating to the financial position shall be placed before the administrators periodically and the accounts shall be maintained properly under the supervision of the administrators.
