Dismissed

Shri Anugraha Sastha Charitable Trust No 25/13 v. Travancore Devaswom Board

Kerala HC13 Jan 2016WP(C)/520/2016

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

The High Court examined writ petitions seeking permission for a charitable trust to conduct Annadanams at Sabarimala. The Court found no basis to order the Travancore Devaswom Board to permit the petitioner or additional NGOs, dismissing the petitions without prejudice to future pleas.

What did the court decide?

Petitions dismissed without prejudice to petitioners seeking further relief for succeeding years.

Shri Anugraha Sastha Charitable Trust No 25/13 Vs… — Writ and Judicial Review | Kerala HC (2016)

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF KERALA AT ERNAKULAM

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PRESENT:

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THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE THOTTATHIL B.RADHAKRISHNAN

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THE HONOURABLE MRS. JUSTICE ANU SIVARAMAN

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WEDNESDAY, THE 13TH DAY OF JANUARY 2016/23RD POUSHA, 1937

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WP(C).No. 520 of 2016 (L)

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PETITIONER:

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SHRI ANUGRAHA SASTHA CHARITABLE TRUST NO 25/13 AGED 57 YEARS MURTHY STREET, WEST MAMBALAM, CHENNAI 600 033 REPRESENTED BY ITS MANAGING TRUSTEE N.SEETHARAMAN.

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BY ADV. SRI.MILLU DANDAPANI

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RESPONDENTS:

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TRAVANCORE DEVASWOM BOARD DEVASWOM BOARD BUILDINGS, NANTHANCODE TRIVANDRUM 695 033, REPRESENTED BY ITS SECRETARY.

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STATE OF KERALA

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REPRESENTED BY ITS CHIEF SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENTGOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT TRIVANDRUM 695 001.

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DEPUTY DIRECTOR

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LOCAL FUND AUDITTRAVANCORE DEVASOM BOARD

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TRIVANDRUM 695 033.

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R1 BY ADV. SRI.KRISHNA MENON, SC, TRAVANCORE DEVASWOM BOARD R2 & 3 BY SENIOR GOVERNMENT PLEADER SRI.A.RENJITH

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THIS WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) HAVING BEEN FINALLY HEARD ALONG WITH WPC 584/16 ON 13-01-2016, THE COURT ON THE SAME DAY DELIVERED THE FOLLOWING:

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WP(C).No. 520 of 2016 (L)

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APPENDIX

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PETITIONER'S EXHIBITS

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P1: TRUE COPY OF THE REPRESENTATION DATED 24/12/2015 SUBMITTED BY THE PETITIONER TO THE 1ST RESPONDENT.

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P2: TRUE COPY OF THE INTERIM ORDER DATED 16/11/2015 IN I.A NOS.2967, 2973, 2925, 2968, 2974 OF 2015 AND 2774 OF 2012 IN DBP NO.136/2012 OF THIS HON'BLE COURT

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RESPONDENTS' EXHIBITS

NIL

TRUE COPY

P.A.TO JUDGE

THOTTATHIL B.RADHAKRISHNAN & ANU SIVARAMAN, JJ.

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= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = W.P.(C).Nos.584 & 520 of 2016

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= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

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Dated this the 13^th day of January, 2016

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JUDGMENT

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Thottathil B.Radhakrishnan, J.

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1.Petitioner in W.P.(C).No.584 of 2016 seeks an order permitting him and his institution to carry out Annadanams in Sabarimala.

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2.Read the order dated 28.10.2015 in DBP No.136 of 2012 and SSCR No.11 of 2015, a copy of which will stand appended to this judgment as Appendix I.

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3.Thereafter, the Travancore Devaswom Board found it necessary to get the assistance of four NGOs and they chose to permit four such institutions which have done longstanding support for the pilgrims. Therefore, variation was made permitting those four NGOs to carry out the Annadanam Schemes for the current year . The Board had clearly said that for the coming years, even that may not be necessary.

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W.A.Nos.584 & 520/16

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4.Thereafter, different applications/writ petitions from different NGOs were considered. The Board took the consistent stand that no further support from the NGOs is necessary for the current year. It will be profitable in this context to refer to the order dated 17.12.2015 in I.A.No.3219 of 2015 in DBP No.136 of 2012 including I.A.No.3056 of 2015 in SSCR No.11 of 2015. A copy of that order will stand appended to this judgment as Appendix II.

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5.In so far as the writ petition in hand is concerned, the petitioner attempts to make out a case that he has donor room which was permitted to be augmented and later, he was also permitted to carry out Annadanam facilities. The materials clearly show that the donor room including the improvement made thereto is regarding a portion which provides only for accommodation, that too, on a licence basis, free of charges for five days a year with the clear interdiction that no cooking shall be permitted in the donor room. Different materials indicate that the petitioner was given space in Sannidanam to carry out Annadanam during the previous years. That by itself

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W.A.Nos.584 & 520/16

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may not be justified in saying that the Board had taken the stand that the petitioner is not to be permitted this year. We also see that the first among the requests made by the petitioner for permission to conduct Annadanam for the current year was on 12.09.2015, followed by another request of 20.11.2015.

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6.As regards W.P.(C).No.520 of 2016, the plea is that the petitioner had been conducting Annadanam during the previous years and he may be permitted to carry out that activity for this year also. For the reasons which we have noted above, we concur with the Travancore Devaswom Board that no further provisions can be made to facilitate any NGO to be further included in the Annadanam process for the current year.

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7.The Makaravilakku festival is due for the Makaravilakku on 15.01.2016, and it would not be worthwhile to make any further modification to the existing scheme of Annadanam since what is of primary importance is that the system which is

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W.A.Nos.584 & 520/16

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already put in place has to run appropriately. Hence, we do not find any ground to issue any order in favour of the petitioners. These writ petitions are accordingly dismissed, without prejudice to the petitioners seeking any plea from the Board if the Travancore Devaswom Board carries out any particular modality of permitting NGOs for Annadanam process for the succeeding years.

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We may, here and now, repeat the caution always sounded by this Court that Travancore Devaswom Board authorities will ensure that there is no failure for the Annadanam process.

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sd/-

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Thottathil B.Radhakrishnan, Judge

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sd/- Anu Sivaraman, Judge

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TRUE COPY

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P.A.TO JUDGE

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sj14/1

Shri Anugraha Sastha Charitable Trust No 25/13 v. Travancore Devaswom Board

Case brief

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Shri Anugraha Sastha Charitable Trust No 25/13 v. Travancore Devaswom Board

Case brief

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