The Kerala High Court on Friday stayed an order of the Malabar Devaswom Board (MDB) that permitted temple officials volunteering to attend the Global Ayyappa Sangam to use temple funds for meeting their travel and food expenses.
A bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan and K V Jayakumar also issued notices to the state government, the Malabar Devaswom Commissioner, and the MDB, seeking their responses to a plea challenging the directive.
The interim direction came on a plea filed by Ramachandran A V, a clerk at the Kinavoor Sri Kiratheswara Temple in Kasaragod. He contested the September 18 order of the Devaswom Commissioner, which authorised divisional inspectors from Kasaragod, Taliparamba, Thalassery, Manjeri, Perinthalmanna, Guruvayoor, Ottapalam, and Palakkad, along with executive officers of temples under the Board, to meet their travel, food, and vehicle expenses for the event from their respective temple funds.
The petitioner argued that temple funds are trust property belonging to the deity and its worshippers, with the state acting only as a statutory trustee. Directing the diversion of such funds, he contended, was “illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable, and violative of devotees’ fundamental rights.”
He further pointed out that many temples under the MDB are already struggling with acute financial shortages, including delays in payment of staff salaries and statutory benefits, making such an order unsustainable.
The plea has sought:
- Quashing of the Devaswom Commissioner’s September 18 order, and
- A direction to ensure that officials attending the Ayyappa conclave do so by bearing their own expenses.
The Global Ayyappa Sangamam is being organised on September 20 at Pampa by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) as part of its 75th anniversary celebrations, in association with the Kerala government.
