Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday admitted a public interest litigation challenging the action of the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams in not depositing the under-assessed contribution of the endowment administration fund and common good fund from 1987 to 2014 with the endowments departments of AP and Telangana state.
Admitting the petition of Dr M.V. Soundararajan of the Chilkuri Balaji temple, a division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice A. Shankar Narayana issued notices to both the state governments and the TTD asking them to file their counter affidavits.
Senior counsel P. Raghuram appearing for the petitioner said that the arrears had accumulated o about Rs 2,500 crore. As per the Endowments rules, the TTD has to deposit 7 per cent of its income to the department so that the money can be distributed to smaller temples and for welfare of priests in a number of temples with low income.
Senior counsel P. Raghuram urged the court to direct the TTD to distribute the funds between two states in accordance with the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014. According to this calculation, based on population, Telangana state would get Rs 1,000 crore and Andhra Pradesh Rs 1,500 crore.
