Photo credit: ANI
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Bombay HC order that had quashed Maharashtra govt’s decision to appoint Ahilyanagar Collector as administrator of the trust managing famous Shani Shinganapur temple and asked Nashik Divisional Commissioner to administer the trust saying it wanted to prevent possible defalcation of funds.Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, for Maharashtra govt, informed a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant that there was gross mismanagement of funds by the erstwhile trust, which has been revived by the HC by quashing of the state’s Sep 22 decision to appoint administrator.Mehta said the trust had employed 2,400 employees for the temple. Is such a huge workforce required for management of the temple, he asked and informed the court that the trust was spending more than Rs 2 crore on salaries and other heads which indicate that the funds were going elsewhere.For the trust, advocate Pradnya Talekar made a spirited attack on the govt’s intention to politicize the matter and control the temple for electoral gains. Though her line of argument earned praise from the court and the SG, the bench said it is surprising that the Collector on Dec 12, the day the HC passed the order and despite it being communicated to him that the state would file an appeal in SC, called the trust office bearers and handed over the charge. CJI Kant said, “This indicates that the trustees are powerful local politicians of whom the Collector is afraid of. He does not give a day’s breathing time to the state to file an appeal. He immediately prepares inventory and hands over charge to the trust.”The bench noted that the trust’s tenure is coming to an end on Dec 31 and said that it would not be prudent to hand them over the charge of the temple management. If a bureaucrat manages it as administrator, then he can be held accountable, the bench said and ordered that while the Nashik DC would be the administrator, two judicial officers would assist him.The court also asked Maharashtra govt to file a status report on framing of Rules for implementation of the Shree Shanaishwar Devasthan Trust (Shingnapur) Act, 2018. The state in its appeal had said, “The 2018 Act is a special enactment intended to ensure transparency, accountability, and effective administration of a major public religious institution involving substantial public donations and serious law-and-order considerations.”“The interim appointment of the District Collector as Administrator was strictly in accordance with Section 36(3) of the Act and was necessitated to avoid disruption pending constitution of the Management Committee under Section 5,” it had said.The HC on Dec 12, while quashing the appointment of District Collector as administrator had directed handing over of all movable and immovable properties of the trust within seven days to the committee, which existed prior to the appointment of administrator.