Court halts appointment of endowment officer; case adjourned to March 21
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court faulted the endowment tribunal orders appointing an endowment officer to take care of the administration of the highly patronised Bhagyalakshmi Mandir at Charminar.
In a lunch-motion petition on Friday, Justice Alishetty Laxminarayana issued stay orders on the tribunal orders based on the petition filed by Shashikala, who is involved in the affairs of the temple. The judge stayed on all further proceedings pursuant to the orders passed by the endowment tribunal. The issue was adjourned to March 21.
The temple has been under the administrative control of Mahant Manohar Das and Mahant Ramachandra Das families since the 1960s. Senior counsel for the petitioner contended that Mahanth Ramchandra Das was the founder of the temple and, after his death, his adopted son Rajmohan Das had been taking care of the temple as his successor, a role that has been recognised by the endowment department.
Rajmohan Das expired in 1998 and the petitioners were declared as members of the founding family, which was challenged before the tribunal.
The tribunal had recently directed the endowment department to immediately appoint an endowment officer to look after the temple’s affairs. It may be noted that the temple administration issue reached the courts and the tribunal after some local devotees suspected misappropriation of funds.
Clear all dues to retired head mistress, govt told
Hyderabad: Justice Namavarapu Rajeshwar Rao of the Telangana High Court directed the state government to clear retirement benefits that are due to Cholleti Raja Sukanya, a retired headmistress from Thorrur in Mahabubabad district, within eight weeks.
The petitioner was among dozens of retired government employees who approached the court seeking directions to the government to clear retirement benefits, including commutation, gratuity, provided fund, earned leave, and surrender leave encashment.
C.R. Sukumar, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that his client has been representing her case to the authorities for over seven months but in vain.
CAT directs Centre to reallocate senior bureaucrat to AP
Hyderabad: In a relief to senior IAS officer Siva Sankar Lotheti, waiting for a posting in the Telangana cadre, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Hyderabad bench, directed the Union government to reallocate him to the Andhra Pradesh cadre as per his choice.
The CAT bench, comprising Lata Baswaraj Patne and Varun Sindhu Kul Kaumudi, quashed and set aside the orders of the Union department of personnel and training, ministry of personnel, public grievances and pension, dated October 9, 2024, allocating him to the Telangana cadre. Challenging the Union government’s orders, Sankar had approached the CAT.
The bench directed the Centre to re-allocate the applicant to the Andhra Pradesh cadre as an insider, based on his domicile and pass appropriate orders and communicate the same to the applicant, within four weeks.
Further, the bench also directed chief secretaries of both states to take consequential action forthwith while complying with the directions on receipt of the orders from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pension.
Siva Sankar was working as a collector in Andhra Pradesh before he was relieved and asked to report to Telangana.
