Govt told to look into temple staff's plea

The High Court, on Wednesday, directed the State government to consider the representation of the employees of Srikanteshwara temple in Nanjangud, Mysore district, to consider their representation, seeking to exclude them from the e-attendance system, introduced recently.

Hearing a petition by the temple employees’ welfare association, Justice Vega Suri Appa Rao directed the government to consider the memorandum and also directed that fresh orders be passed regarding the issue.

Bio-metric

The government had introduced the bio-metric attendance system in the temple, earlier this year, along with a direction that the temple authorities, including priests, should swipe between 6 am to 6.30 am and between 8 pm to 8.30 pm.

Objecting to this, the temple employees had submitted a memorandum to the Mysore Deputy Commissioner to exclude them from the bio-metric attendance.

The petitioners said that they would be forced to stay back compulsorily till the temple closes for the day, if this is implemented. When the DC failed to consider their representation, they moved the High Court. They submitted that the timings do not apply to them as sometimes they need to come to the temple before the scheduled timings.

A V Amarnathan, the counsel for the petitioners, said, “Sometimes, they need to conduct pooja by 4 am and the timings are extended for a long time during festival days. Most of the staff work on shifts and cannot be in the temple all day long.”

The petitioners submitted that the authorities had not consulted the employees before implementing the order and the order was liable to be set aside.