Bombay HC serves notice to Siddhivinayak Trust over fund transfer
Bombay HC serves notice to Siddhivinayak Trust over fund transfer
In concern to the Public Interest Litigation filed against the Maharashtra Government and Siddhivinayak Temple Trust, The Bombay High court has served a notice asking them to draft their respective replies within time period of four weeks.
The Public Interest Litigation was filed to challenge the fund transfer of RS. 10 Crores by Siddhivinayak Trust to Maharashtra Government to fight with ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and to support state’s ‘Shiv Bhojan’ scheme thereby providing subsidised food for the poor. PIL has been filed by a person named Leela Ranga questioning the transfer to be illegal under the provisions of Shree Siddhivinayak Temple Trust (Prabhadevi) Act 1980 which clear states the functioning of trust.
As per Ranga’s lawyer, Pardeep Sancheti Rs. 5 crore each were transferred for both purposes mentioned in para1. But if we look at section 18 of the act it is very clearly mentioned that surplus funds of temple trust can only be used for the purpose of management, maintenance and administration of temple. Sancheti added that law does not allow transfer of funds of trust to government.
Further widening the scope of maintenance, he mentioned that surplus funds can be used for maintenance of educational institutes, hospitals, schools etc. Sancheti urged before court to pass an interim order that would further stop any kind of such fund transfer that are impermissible as per law.
PIL is being heard by two judge benches including Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Revati- Mohite Dere. They refused to hear the prayer saying that no one appeared on the behalf of temple trust. The court also rejected Sancheti’s urge to stop government from renewing the appointment of certain trustees whose tenure of work is about to end in a month.
Court concluded saying that “It can order transfer of the funds back to the trust, if after final hearing, it finds that the transfers were illegal”.
By Eshika Singla
Bombay HC serves notice to Siddhivinayak Temple Trust over fund transfer.
