The High Court of Andhra Pradesh has upheld the decision of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) with respect to the removal of over 5 employees on the charges of misconduct. The court said that the action of the staff of TTD’s Sri Venkateswara Bhakti Channel deserved stringent punishment and rejected the employees’ plea for reinstatement.
The TTD petitioned the High Court that they were removed from the jobs without giving prior notice. This was against the terms and conditions of employment and the principles of natural justice. However, Judge Satyanarayana Murthy took a serious view of the behaviour of the staff. He summarily set aside their petition.
It may be recalled that a TTD employee sent a porn video clip to a devotee who actually requested for the clipping of a devotional programme. The management ordered a vigilance enquiry which revealed that many employees in the SVBC channel were seeing porn video clips in the office.
Following availability of enough evidence, five SVBC staff were outright removed from service. The whole issue came to the surface after the devotee who received porn clips immediately complained to the TTD Chairman SV Subba Reddy and Executive Officer Jawahar Reddy.
