Hyderabad, November 10: In a major blow to ‘‘Dollar’’Seshadri, the omnipotent Officer on Special Duty (OSD) at the Tirumala temple, a division bench of the Andhra
Pradesh High Court, comprising Chief Justice Anil Ramesh Dave and Justice CV Nagarjuna Reddy, on Monday suspended the two-year extension granted to him.
The bench passed the interim order on a writ petition filed by Maganti Gopala Reddy, a resident of Tirupati, challenging the extension granted to Seshadri by the
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Trust Board on August 1.
The petitioner pointed out that Seshadri was among the 19 TTD employees against whom disciplinary action was initiated on the basis of a report of the Chief Vigilance and Security Officer on the missing TTD jewels.
The petitioner further stated that the government had issued an order initiating disciplinary action as late as on July 2 and within a month, Seshadri was given
the impugned extension.
The TTD counsel contended that in the light of a query from another bench of the court on the power of the government to order such disciplinary proceedings, the matter was handed over to the CB-CID.
The counsel informed the court that the CB-CID had cleared Seshadri of all charges.
The bench then observed that the beneficiary might be clean but it was not as if sevas at the temple could not be carried on in his absence. The bench accordingly suspended the proceedings of the TTD.
–Agencies