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Retired priests of Tirumala temple get back to service as TTD restores jobs
On May 16, 2018, the TTD, for the first time, introduced retirement rules for priests, according to which all those who attained the age of 65 years would have to retire. The rule was brought in at the TTD board meeting following serious allegations of corruption in the temple administration.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, which manages the country’s richest temple of Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district, on Saturday, issued orders restoring the services of several priests for the rest of their lives.
The order restores the services of former head priest of the temple Dr AV Ramana Deekshitulu, who was forced to retire three years ago on attaining the age of superannuation at 65 years, a spokesperson of the TTD said.
Deekshitulu confirmed to HT that he had received the orders and he would be taking over as the head priest of the temple again. “Along with me, at least 10 others of the Tirumala temple and other associated temples like Lord Padmavathi temple at Tiruchanur and Govindarajulu Swamy temple at Tirupati, have also got back their jobs,” he said.
On May 16, 2018, the TTD, for the first time, introduced retirement rules for priests, according to which all those who attained the age of 65 years would have to retire. The rule was brought in at the TTD board meeting following serious allegations of corruption in the temple administration made by Deekshitulu the previous day.
Deekshitulu then alleged that the administrators of the temple were siphoning off the temple money and destroying the sanctity of the temple and demanded an open audit into the donations being received by the temple and expenditure being incurred by the TTD. He also alleged that precious ancient jewellery of the temple was missing and demanded that the TTD be brought under the purview of the Right to Information Act.
Along with Deekshitulu, three other priests – Narasimha Deekshitulu, Srinivasa Murthy Deekshitulu and Narayana Deekshitulu – were also forced to retire from their services. In their place, the TTD appointed four other priests.
After the YSR Congress government came to power, chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had done away with the rule of retirement for priests performing pujas in various Hindu temples across the state on attainment of age of superannuation, following a high court order of December 2018, which said the retirement rule would not be applicable to temple priests.
The Jagan government issued an order in October 2019 stating that there would be no retirement for the priests of various temples on the basis of age. “A priest shall continue in the post till he is physically fit to perform his archakatvam (priesthood) duties,” the order said.
However, the order was not made applicable to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, as it is governed by its own rules. As a result, Deekshitulu could not get back his head priest post. Instead, the TTD appointed him as Agama advisor and also honourary chief priest.
Now, with Saturday’s orders, Deekshitulu will be re-joining his duties as head priest of the Tirumala temple. Of the remaining three main priests of the temple, Srinivasa Murthy died of Covid-19 on July 20 last year. The remaining two priests would also be getting back their jobs in the temple.
