New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Tamil Nadu government on a PIL filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy challenging its (government) control over the temples in the state and the appointment of the non-brahmins as “Archakas” (priests).
A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia also issued a notice on a plea seeking to restrain the state government from making more appointments of priests.
During the hearing, Swamy sought an interim stay of the appointments order, urging the court, “Please give an interim stay on the appointment of Archakas by the state government, which is an atheistic government.”
Swamy has also challenged the provisions of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act 1959 granting the state absolute control over the appointment and dismissal of “archakas” in the Hindu temples.
Posting the matter for hearing on October 14, the court tagged Swamy’s plea with another pending petition raising the same issue. Swamy had filed the public interest plea in September 2021.
On August 14, 2021, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had appointed trained “archakas” of various communities as priests of the shrines. The Hindu religious and charitable endowment department gave appointment letters to 208 such priests.
The appointments include 24 aspirants who had formally completed training in a state-run centre for becoming priests and 34 others who completed “archaka” training in other “pathshalas”.
Lamenting the appointments of non-Brahmin priests, Swamy said, Stalin, just like his father M. Karunanidhi, was meddling in the affairs of the temples and appointment and posting of the priests.
