chennai the madras high court has ordered maintaining status quo in the matter of recruitment of archakas in hindu templesjustice dr anita sumanth granted the interim injunction while entertaining a writ petition from the all india adi saiva sivacharyargal seva sangam last weekthe last date for receipt of applications was august 7statusquo be maintained thereafter until further orders the judge said and posted the matter to august 25 with a direction to the authorities concerned to circulate the tamil nadu hindu religious institutions employees conditions of service rules 2020 to the other parties in the casethe petitioner sought to quash the advertisements issued on july 6 this year inviting applications for the posts of archakas odhuvars and paricharakar to the temples in the stateit was proposed to appoint people holding certificate courses as archakas in templesamong other things the petitioner contended that the impugned order is arbitrary and violative of the principles of natural justicethe state government has failed to see that the qualification for appointment of archakas is no longer res integra as the same has been settled by the supreme court in 2019the government is time and again being vindictive towards the members of the petitioner sangam and similar organisations which testified their malafide intention it claimedthe order tantamount to a direct assault on the rights of the members of the petitioner sangam and similarly placed personsthe authorities have failed to see that the power to appoint archakas cannot be relegated or assigned to persons who have no knowledge about the agamas or functioning of templestemple trustees alone are empowered to appoint archakas as per this section thus the impugned order ran counter to the provisions of the act and hence liable to be repelled petitioner said