Justice M. S. Ramachandra Rao of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday set aside the order of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) directing retirement of archakas (priests) on reaching 65 years of age.
The verdict said the two petitioners, who were working as Sambhavana Archakas in Padmavati Ammavari temple, should be allowed to discharge their duties as long as they were physically fit. The TTD passed a resolution on May 16, 2018, and issued proceedings on June 27, 2018, for superannuation of archakas working in TTD temples on attainment of 65 years, treating them as TTD employees.
The petitioners, A.B. Seshadri, 66, and M.G. Murali, 68, moved the court, challenging the order as it directed them to retire from work as archakas. In 2010, the TTD had passed a resolution stating “there is no employer-employee relationship between the TTD and the archakas”, the judgment pointed out.
As per that resolution, they were “not recognised as employees and no scales of pay have been made applicable to them”.
In this background, the counter-affidavit filed by TTD Chief Executive Officer applying Rules to archakas could not be accepted, the judgment said.