There is nothing wrong in temples insisting on prior experience while calling for tenders for preparing and selling ‘prasadam’ (an edible religious offering consumed by devotees) within their premises, the Madras High Court Bench here has ruled.
Justice M. Venugopal passed the order while dismissing a writ petition filed by a caterer, C. Chidambaram, who had challenged two of 47 conditions imposed in the May 19 tender notification of Dhandayuthapaniswamy Temple at Palani in Dindigul district.
The first condition, under challenge, required those submitting tenders to have possessed at least five years of experience in preparing ‘prasadam’ at temples and the second insisted that they should have sold ‘prasadam’ for over Rs.1 crore in one of the five years.
Assailing the two conditions, the petitioner alleged that they had been imposed only to favour particular individuals. He also said that preparation of ‘prasadam’ did not involve any technical expertise and that any one in catering business could perform the job without any hassle.
However, K. Govindarajan, counsel for the temple management, contended that the two conditions were absolutely necessary in view of the nature of the job since the first one related to experience and the second was to ascertain the financial capacity of those submitting tenders.
Stating that thousands of devotees visit Dhandayuthapaniswamy Temple on a daily basis, he said that even a short delay in preparing the ‘prasadam’ might lead to chaos as it would not only affect temple administration but also hurt the religious sentiments of the worshippers.
Concurring with him, Mr. Justice Venugopal held that the conditions could not be termed “unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious” as claimed by the writ petitioner. “In fact, they are meant only to enable eligible, fit and competent persons to take part in the tender process,” he added.
