The Aurangabad division bench of the Bombay high court on Tuesday ordered the disbandment of the Sai Baba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi. The HC has further asked the collector, Ahamadnagar to take charge of the day-to-day working of the trust with immediate effect and arrange to appoint a new committee within a fortnight.
In a jolt to the Maharashtra government, HC sacked the 18 members of the Shirdi-based Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, on the charges that their appointments were arbitrary and thereby not legal to run the trust. All members of the trust belong to the ruling parties Congress and NCP.
The bench comprising Justice Naresh Patil and T.V. Nalawade hearing a PIL filed by Bharatiya Janata Party Shirdi president Rajendra Gondkar and social activist Sandip Kulkarni ordered the government to appoint a new committee within 15 days, failing which the collector and other officials would take over the administration.
It is estimated that the trust receives crores of rupees as donations everyday and so the control over it coveted. The HC bench accepted the contention in a PIL that appointments to the Shirdi trust were done in an arbitrary manner.
The PIL also argued that several former MLAs and MPs were appointed to the Shirdi trust in a clear violation of the eligibility rules that had been laid down.
After citing the PIL filed by the duo, the HC, while passing the order observed that the Shirdi Sai Baba temple, one of the richest in India, is not being managed as per rules and regulations. The trust is supposed to have administrative rules under Section 25 of Shri Sai Baba Sansthan Trust (Shirdi) Act, 2004. However, no rules have been framed in the last six years ever since the act came into existence.
The temple is currently being governed by the Shree Sai Baba Sansthan Trust. The Sansthan has been under the scanner after allegations of misappropriation of funds by some trustees came to light. On March 2, a local court in Rahata, near Shirdi, had directed the police to conduct a probe and register a case against three trustees of the Shri Sai Baba Sansthan, who allegedly cheated the trust.