The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday pulled up the officials of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) for issuing 'show-cause notices' to its non-Hindu employees.
Earlier this month, the employees had moved the High Court, challenging the guidelines of one of the richest religious bodies in the world.
Following this, the HC has stayed the termination of all non-Hindu TTD employees.
"We will adjudicate the matter and find out why this sudden posture by authorities when they have not made any mention about such rules when recruiting these employees two decades ago. If there are such rules, then we will verify the constitutional validity of such rules," the bench was quoted as saying.
Pointing out that non-Hindus were allowed to enter the temple, the court also told the TTD that many of these employees were working under the religious body for years, and did not hide their religion when they were employed.
The TTD counsel reportedly told the bench that the devasthanam had received representations from several Hindu religious organisations that non-Hindus should not be hired by them.
Recently, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad appealed the custodians of the temple to identify employees from other faith and sack them.
Last month, it was reported that the non-Hindus who were working with the TTD were expected to be shifted to other departments of the Andhra Pradesh state government, for violating the rules.
Speaking to reporters, TTD Executive Officer Anil Kumar Singhal, said, “As per our guidelines in tune with GOs issued in 1989 and 2007, non-Hindus will not be recruited either in teaching or non-teaching categories of TTD. We have identified 44 people who got appointed in the TTD against the guidelines since 1989. Majority of them are employed under the compassionate ground category. We are now contemplating sending them to other State government departments.”
The controversy of TTD employees practicing other faith triggered off, following the viral video of a TTD official visiting and praying at a local church.
The official was Deputy Executive Officer of TTD, Sneha Latha. She was accused of visiting church every Sunday in the official car belonging to TTD.
An internal probe was initiated into the incident following which Vigilance and enforcement head Ake Ravi Krishna submitted the report.