Bengaluru: Karnataka high court upheld the dismissal of an employee of a Muzrai temple in Udupi district on charges of misappropriation of Rs 8,750 by creating duplicate receipts.
The Act of 1997 casts on the department the duty of supervising and safeguarding these funds.
“The punishment of dismissal imposed on the petitioner for a proven breach of trust and misappropriation is not grossly disproportionate to the misconduct, and it does not warrant interference in the exercise of the writ jurisdiction of this court,” the judge added. Coming across various infirmities in the day-to-day affairs of Muzrai temples across the state, the court also issued a series of general directions for the temples. However, Justice Govindaraj refused to accept these contentions. Temple funds are not ordinary funds. They are trust property, gathered from the faith of devotees and held for the deity and for the institution. A system of financial control that depends on chance discovery and manual reconciliation, and that can be defeated by one employee with exclusive access to a counter and a password, does not answer to that duty in the present age, when technology makes the real-time capture, monitoring and audit of every rupee entirely feasible, the judge observed while issuing general directions. General Directions Issued by Judge The judge also suggested periodic weighing, verification and valuation of gold and silver with the temples and also suggested evolving a protocol for melting or conversion of gold offerings. The judge directed the commissioner and the secretary, e-governance department, to jointly file a status report in his court within three months from the date of receipt of a copy of his order, setting out the roadmap drawn up, and the progress made in giving effect to these directions. The judge added that the two officers shall continue to report the progress periodically thereafter until the system is fully in place.