In a significant development, the Kerala High Court on Friday issued a stay order against a controversial directive from the Malabar Devaswom Board (MDB). This MDB order had permitted temple officials volunteering for the Global Ayyappa Sangamam in Pampa to cover their travel and food expenses using funds from their respective temples.
The interim injunction was handed down by a Division Bench comprising Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan and Justice K.V. Jayakumar. Their decision followed a petition filed by Ramachandran A.V., a clerk at a Nileshwaram temple in Kasaragod. The High Court has also sought responses from the State government, the MDB, and the board’s commissioner regarding the September 18 order, which allowed divisional inspectors and executive officers to allocate temple funds for these expenses.
Mr. Ramachandran’s petition argued that temple funds are sacred trust properties, rightfully belonging to the deity and its devotees. He emphasized that the State, acting solely as a statutory trustee, holds these funds under a fiduciary duty and therefore cannot legally divert them for purposes unrelated to the temple’s core functions.
Furthermore, the petitioner highlighted the severe financial difficulties faced by many temples, with some even struggling to pay employee salaries. Numerous temples are either crumbling or in urgent need of repairs. Given these circumstances, he asserted that the commissioner’s order was not only illegal, arbitrary, and unreasonable but also a blatant violation of devotees’ rights. Mr. Ramachandran further characterized the State government’s directive, channeled through the MDB, as an illegitimate exertion of authority.