The Madras High Court on Tuesday decided to pronounce orders on Wednesday on a writ appeal preferred by Sri Ram Samaj, which manages the Ayodhya Mandapam at West Mambalam in Chennai, against the recent dismissal of its 2014 writ petition challenging a 2013 Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department order appointing a Thakkar (Fit Person) to manage its affairs.
First Division Bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy indicated that they might quash the 2013 order and allow the HR&CE department to hold a fresh inquiry by an independent authority. They said, Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram would be authorised to select the inquiry officer and the A-G replied that even a retired judge could be asked to inquire.
The Bench also said that a fair opportunity of hearing must be given to the Samaj before the conclusion of the fresh inquiry and that the latter must be allowed to run its affairs until the completion of such inquiry. Earlier, senior counsel Satish Parasaran, representing the Samaj, said, it was created by a few senior citizens with their hard earned money and they had got it registered as a society in 1958.
