Mannar Koil Salary Case Stayed Madurai High Court

When the order was secured in April, it seemed that it would be an irreversible one and a major victory for the priest at Mannar Koil. However, in the two exclusive meetings this writer had with PK Sekar Babu, the HR & CE minister at his office in May and earlier this month, he categorically said that they HR & CE would not pay the salary as per minimum wages act though he personally was interested to consider the salary for this priest after having seen him and the way he had maintained the temple when he visited the temple earlier this year. 

Within a day of that conversation with the minister, the HR &CE went on appeal against the order asking not just for a stay but pleading for the order to be dismissed.

The HR & CE once again went with the same argument that the salary of the priest and the service personnel cannot be paid from the income generated by other cash rich temples and that each temple is an institution by itself. 

Despite presenting the facts – the review appeals of HR & CE had already been dismissed by the Bench earlier and the order in April was made after studying those dismissals; the temple did not generate enough income to pay an increased salary was already taken into account before the April order; the Commissioner’s salary, the cars of HR & CE officials and the salary to the drivers were all paid from the common fund taken from cash rich temples was also well known, the two judge bench has directed an indefinite stay without providing the date for the next hearing leaving Narasimha Gopalan Acharya completely disheartened leaving him sleepless on Thursday night.

For the record, he was paid Rs. 155 as monthly salary when he took over from his appa just under two decades ago. This went up to Rs. 750 after a decade and then to just over Rs. 3000 now. Unfortunately the two service personnel who work with him at the temple are still paid a monthly salary of Rs. 300!!!

He told this writer on Friday morning that it has been the cruelest shock of his life. “After having slogged since 2017 fighting for the rights of the priests and service personnel in temples and securing an order in April this year, this was quite unexpected especially as we had provided all the legal facts that led to the final order”, he said.

Though it is definitely a setback, having fought this hard, Narasimha Gopalan Bhattar is not going to be bogged down and  will continue to fight tooth and nail to get the stay vacated and the appeal dismissed as he says that two previous review appeals of the HR & CE had already been dismissed by the bench of the Madurai High Court prior to the April order.

It was Narasimha Gopalan Bhattar who single handedly anchored and performed the Thiruppani works and a grand consecration in 2010 after a few hundred years at Mannar Koil. In March this year he performed another grand consecration of the temple, once again through his own personal initiative without any physical or financial support from the HR & CE. The temple also featured on the Prime Minister's Mann Ki Baat programme for the priest's commitment to keep the historic tradition going in TN temples but all that counts for nothing now as his immediate hopes of an increased salary has been dashed.

He has seen many a battle over the last couple of decades at this historical Rajagopalaswamy Kulasekara Azhvaar temple but this one, to him, has been the most shocking and the hardest to take. After a long five year case in the Madurai High Court, he finally won the order securing an increased salary for himself and his two service personnel as per the Minimum Wages Act. This section has featured two stories since that order in April stating that the order was secured after the judge took into account the income generated by this temple as well as previous review appeals of HR & CE that were dismissed by the Bench of the Madurai High Court. But with this stay, he has to now go back to the Court fighting once again to get the stay Vacated and the HR & CE's appeal dismissed. 

The HR & CE is not paying him the 'minimum wages' salary anytime in the near future and they will use as much of the temple money as needed to take their appeals to the court in an effort to delay the payment of the increased salary to this priest whose family has served at this temple for several decades. And that is a sad reflection on the attitude of the HR & CE .