HR&CE succeeds in not letting EO retire from service voluntarily without facing inquiry for alleged misappropriation of temple funds

HR&CE Department prevents EO accused of misappropriating temple funds from retiring voluntarily, upholds removal of hereditary trustee in Chennai.

The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department has succeeded in not letting an Executive Officer (EO), accused of misappropriating ₹1.37 crore of temple funds, to retire from service voluntarily without facing the Departmental inquiry.

Allowing a 2022 writ appeal filed by the HR&CE Commissioner, a Division Bench of Justices D. Krishnakumar and K. Kumaresh Babu reversed an Order passed by a single judge of the High Court in 2021 permitting the EO R. Muthusamy to retire from service.

The Bench agreed with Special Government Pleader (HR&CE) N.R.R. Arun Natarajan that the single judge had erred in allowing the writ petition filed by the EO and letting him retire from service voluntarily despite his request having been rejected by the Commissioner.

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Authoring the verdict, Justice Babu said, the Order rejecting the voluntary retirement request had been passed within the statutory period of three months since the requisition was submitted but the single judge had calculated the period wrongly to hold that the request should be deemed to have been accepted.

In yet another case related to the HR&CE Department, Justice N. Anand Venkatesh upheld a Government Order issued on February 1, 2024 removing G. Prem Anand from the post of hereditary trustee of Sri Vengeeswarar, Azhagar Perumal and Nagathamman Koil Devasthanam at Vadapalani in Chennai.

The judge said, the writ petitioner had failed to give satisfactory explanation to the charge of having skipped four immovable properties of the Devasthanam while carrying out the decennial exercise of preparing a new property register and also not explained why he did not handover the old register to the Department.