High Court rejects family claim to recite almanac

MADURAI: The Madras high court bench on Monday dismissed a bunch of petitions filed by Lakshmi Narasimha Bhattar and his son seeking to allow them to recite the 'panchangam' (almanac) before the Sri Ranganathar deity in Srirangam at the time of 'Viswaroopam' (early morning).
In his petition, Bhattar said he had been rendering his services and was receiving the temple honours for several years.From time immemorial, the custom and practice of reciting the 'panchangam' was by standing on the 'kulaskarampadi' (near the deity) in the temple and it cannot be done in any other place.
On June 3, by an order, the HR&CE department asked Bhattar to retire on reaching superannuation and appointed one Sridhar for reading the 'panchangam'.
It was also stated that the trustee board passed a resolution to retire Bhattar, who had attained the age of 60 years. The board further said that the reading of 'panchangam' was done by Bhattar only as a servant of the temple for which he was paid Rs 1.35 paise. As per the service rules framed for the staff of the temple, a servant had to be retired when he reaches 60 years.
Hence, Bhattar and his son Sethamarai Kannan initiated several proceedings before the Madurai bench of the Madras high court, as well as in the appellate authority of HR&CE.
Dismissing all the petitions, Justice Chandru said, "The petitioner bound himself into different knots, is desperate in filing cases by seeking relief.