1. Caste has no role in appointment of temple priests: Madras HC
The Madras High Court, in a significant verdict, has ruled that caste will not have any role to play during the appointment of archakars (temple priests), if the candidate satisfies the requirements under the Agama Sastra applicable to the temple concerned.
The order was passed while disposing of a writ petition filed challenging a notification issued in 2018 by the Executive Officer of Sri Sugavaneswarar Swamy Temple in Salem calling for applications to fill up the post of archakar/sthanigar.
2. Engineering admission | Merit list released, counselling to begin in mid-July
The merit list for engineering counselling was released by Minister for Higher Education K. Ponmudy. Later, while addressing journalists at Chennai, he said the counselling for admission to engineering courses would begin in the second week of July. Mr. Ponmudy further said it was decided to delay the counselling ( that usually starts on July 1) until the first round of medical counselling is held.
A total of 102 students, including one from a government school, have scored the full cut-off marks of 200/200. A total of 2,29,175 applications were received, of which 1,78,959 applications were found eligible. Thus, 18,767 more candidates had applied this year.
3. Senthilbalaji’s continuation in Cabinet | Madras HC adjourns hearing to July 7
The Madras High Court has questioned if Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had written to Governor R.N. Ravi making a specific request to allow Minister V. Senthilbalaji to continue in the Cabinet despite his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case on June 14.
On being told that the Raj Bhavan had issued a press release indicating that the Governor was not in favour of the continuation of Mr. Senthilbalaji in the Cabinet, the Chief Justice (CJ) S.V. Gangapurwala said: “There is a distinction between not agreeing with his continuation in the Cabinet and passing a positive order against his continuation. We [CJ and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu] want to know whether any such order has been passed.”
Further, the CJ wanted to know whether there was any provision (in the Constitution) which empowers the Governor to dismiss a Minister. Later in the day, the court decided to hear on July 7 all cases filed against the continuation of Mr. Senthilbalaji in the Cabinet.
