Bombay HC: New committee for Shirdi Sansthan not to take any policy decisions till further orders – Times of India

MUMBAI: Bombay high court’s Aurangabad bench on Tuesday restrained a ‘new committee’ at the Shirdi Sansthan from taking any policy decisions till further orders.
The HC bench of Justices R V Ghughe and SG Mehare while hearing public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Uttamrao Shelke said the “new Committee, which is alleged to have taken charge by dislodging the Committee that we had constituted, shall refrain from taking any policy decision, sanction expenditure and shall also refrain from making any appointments or inducting any new members, if any, until further orders’’.
Shelke’s advocate P S Talekar said that the HC by its order of October 9, 2019, had noted that in 2012 in a PIL filed in 2011 the HC had “thought it fit to appoint a committee to supervise, monitor and look after the financial affairs of the Sansthan.”
The committee so constituted was consisting of the Principal District Judge, Ahmednagar, the Collector, Ahmednagar and the Chief Executive Officer of Shree Sai Baba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi.
The HC had also directed then that any major policy decision for an amount of over Rs 50 lakh must be approved by the committee.
The PIL said that the State has appointed a new Managing Committee for the Sansthan via a Notification dated 16.09.2021 which is termed as the Managing Committee. The committee took charge on September 17.
The State AGP S G Karlekar said that once the charge has been taken by the new committee, the Court may refrain from passing any orders.
The HC said, “We have no doubts that the State Government is empowered to appoint the Managing Committee for Shree Sai Baba Sansthan, Shirdi. However, the peculiar circumstances in which we had passed an order on 9th October 2019, …would indicate that this Court had brought a Committee into existence tosupervise, monitor and administer the Sansthan and its financial affairs.”
It added, “When we had brought a committee into existence and had empowered it to function and administer the Sansthan, prima facie, no other Managing Committee could have dislodged the Committee that we had constituted, on the plea of the Government has declared the formation of the new Committee. In short, the new Committee could not have taken charge without obtaining orders from this Court as we would then be required to discharge the Committee that we had constituted.”
The State sought time and the HC posted the matter to September 23.