The petitioner has approached this Court with the following prayers:
“i. To issue a Writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ or order or direction directing the respondents to appoint the petitioner as Melsanthi in the Manappullykavu bhagavathy temple as applied for in Ext.P5 within the time fixed by this Hon'ble Court;
ii. To issue a Writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ or order or direction directing the 3rd respondent to forward Ext.P5 with report of the Executive Officer to the 2nd respondent within the time frame to be fixed by this Hon'ble Court and direct the 2nd respondent to consider and pass orders on Ext.P5 and till such time Ext.P6 may be stayed.
iii. To declare that the petitioner is entitled to perform as Melsanthi since he has a preferential claim and having experience in the very same temple;
iv. To grant such other relief as this Hon'ble Court deem fit to grant in the interest of justice.”
2. The case of the petitioner is that, the father of the petitioner herein was working as a 'Melsanthi' in Manappullykavu Bhagavathi Temple, Yakkara from 25.12.1986 to 10.11.1999. After the demise of the father, the petitioner has been given appointment under the 4th respondent Devaswom. There is a claim for the petitioner to be appointed as 'Melsanthi', in place of his father. The steps taken in this regard, however, did not turned to be fruitful and the 'Melsanthies' were being appointed by the Devaswom only on contract basis from year to year, since the year, 2000. This made the petitioner to approach this Court by filing this writ petition for appropriate reliefs, when steps were being taken to conduct a fresh selection and to appoint a 'Melsanthi'.
3. It is brought to the notice of this Court by the learned counsel appearing for the respondents that the appointment of 'Melsanthi' earlier was on contract basis for two years from 2000, after the demise of the father of the petitioner and by virtue of the change in norms, the tenure has been reduced to one year from 2010 onwards.
4. When the matter came up before this Court on 02.05.2014, the following interim order was passed:
“In view of the averments in paragraph 6 of the Counter Affidavit dated 24.01.2013 filed by the 4th respondent herein, there will be an interim direction directing the competent authority among the respondents to consider the petitioner also for selection as 'Melsanthi' pursuant to the proposed interview and it is further ordered that if in case the petitioner is selected in the selection process then the concerned authority from the respondents shall grant him leave from the Devaswom to join as 'Melsanthi' as undertaken in the counter affidavit.
Any selection and appointment made pursuant to the proposed interview shall be subject to further orders of this Hon'ble Court.”
Today, when the matter is taken up for consideration, the learned counsel for the petitioner submits that, one of the unsuccessful candidates had filed a Revision Petition before the 2nd respondent, who considered the same and an interim order, has been passed staying the order of appointment.
5. The learned Standing Counsel appearing on behalf of respondents 1 to 3 and the learned counsel appearing for the 4th respondent submit that the proceedings pending before the Commissioner have already been finalised and the Revision Petition has been disposed of as per order dated 21.05.2014. It is stated that, by virtue of the aforesaid order, the Commissioner has shortlisted 'four' candidates for the selection of 'Melsanthi' and that the 'Melsanthi' will be selected by drawing lots from the shortlisted candidates.
6. After hearing both the sides, this Court finds that nothing further remains to be considered in this writ petition for the time being, in view of the subsequent developments. This is more so when, the petitioner admittedly stands included as one of the 'four' persons, who have been shortlisted for drawing the lot.
Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of, with liberty to the 2nd respondent and the authorities concerned to proceed further, in terms of the order dated 21.05.2014 in M.P. No.2 of 2014, for appointment of 'Melsanthi'. All the contentions raised by the parties to the writ petition are left open.
P.R. RAMACHANDRA MENON, JUDGE sp