The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court today directed the trustees of Sri Ranganathaswamy temple at Srirangam to consider reinstating the temple mahout, who was relieved from service based on his resignation letter, ignoring its withdrawal by him later.
The directive was given by Justice K K Sasidharan while disposing of a petition by mahout S Sridharan, who had served the temple for 27 years, seeking to quash the December 25, 2013 order of the temple's Joint Commissioner accepting his resignation after keeping it pending for a long time.
The Judge asked the officials to be lenient in dealing with such issues.
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"I hope that the Chairman and Board of Trustees of Arulmighu Ranganatha Swamy Temple would rise to the occasion and take a decision in the matter favourably", the Judge said.
The Petitioner, who had submitted that he wanted to look after the elephant till his death, said he did not know any other job. "Hence the board should consider his request leniently", he observed.
He had no grievances against the Chairman and had given the resignation letter for personal reasons only, Sridharan said.
The Judge directed the CBT to consider the representation of the mahout as expeditiously as possible, within two weeks, and reinstate him.
