Take priests as per Agama rules: Supreme Court

Acting on a petition filed by the Adi Saiva Sivachariyargal Nala Sangam, a bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi said archakas (priests) appointment in temples following the ‘Agama Sastra’ (temple rituals) would continue.

M. Karunanidhi’s DMK government amended the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious Charitable Endowments Act (HR & CE) to abolish the hereditary appointment of archakas (priests) in temples in Tamil Nadu in 1971. “Any person who is a Hindu and possessing the requisite qualification and training can be appointed as a archaka in Hindu temples”.

The amendment challenged in the Supreme Court went in the State’s favour.

The Supreme Court’s Constitution bench in the Seshammal case judgement held that archakas’ appointment was a “secular function” abolishing “next-in-line of succession” appointments. 

But the court also made it clear that appointments, even if non-hereditary, should conform to the temple’s current practice, meaning that archakas from a specific “sect, denomination or group”, have to be appointed. This practice had to be followed.

The DMK government raised the issue in May 2006 again. Relying on a 2002 judgement in the Adhithyan Vs Travancore Dewasom Board case, the Supreme Court felt there was no justification to insist that persons of a specific caste alone handle temple rituals.

The State government then issued an order ensuring that those having “requisite qualification and training” were eligible to be archakas.

In Chidambaram, the sivachariars were all joyous on hearing the verdict of the Supreme court as it has come after a battle of several years.

The Wednesday order of Supreme court has come as a major setback for a group of persons from other castes, who were selected and trained for the post of priests in around 36,000 temples under the control of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department. DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan told DT Next that he could comment only after seeing the full report. He, however, clarified that the DMK had never been against the Agama Sastras. In fact, the training given to those wanting to serve in temples were based on Agama Sastras. It only wanted to weed out casteism in their selection. DK president K. Veeramani said it was a historical judgement which was a milestone. Stating that the judgement clearly stated that all castes were eligible for appointment as archakas, he said it underlined the fact that those who felt their hereditary rights were affected could seek justice in the lower courts.