Andhra Pradesh High Court
Judges : P.S.MISHRA, V.RAJAGOPALA REDDY
Tallapakam Kuppu Raghavan - Appellant
Versus
State OF A.P.rep., by its Secretary, Dept., of Endowments, Hyderabad - Respondent
Decided On : 12-17-96
A. P. Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act - Constitution of India, 1950 - Article 226 - jurisdiction - religious rights of the devotees - Member of the Legislative Assembly - MATERIAL papers produced in the course of hearing contained the first application by the third respondent to the Executive Officer of the Devastanam (second respondent) in which he has described himself as the Proprietor and signed for VMC Productions and stated that he had proposed to make a movie on Annamacharya s life and works in his banner "vmc Productions" and, "the main object of making this movie is to propagate the Bhakticult of Sri venkateswara through the Literary message of Annamacharya". His second application dated 17-9-1996 specifically mentions, "the main object of making this movie is to propagate the Bhakticult of Sri Venkateswara through the literary message of Annamacharya. Permission have already accorded by t. T. D. to me in this regard. . . . . . . . I request you to accord permission to shoot some of the scenes in the film surrounding the temple and pushkarini in tirumala Hills, Papavinasanam, Akasaganga and also in Karvetinagar temple and pushkarini, Narayanavanam temple, Nagalapuram temple - Held, LAWS aside, however, petitioner has not shown any objection to the third respondent s devotion for Lord Venkateswara and his taking up the life of annamayya as a subject for a feature film. It is not at all any personal right of the petitioner as Annamayya belongs to entire community and not to any individual or a family. The third respondent has shown high regards for annamayya s contribution to the society at large and religious denomination or the section of the devotees of Lord Venkateswara in particular. He has stated in clear terms that he has intended to make a movie on the life of Annamayya and to make the people to re-live the time of the great Saint and reformer and along with him the viewers of the film. Since the petitioner does not have any proprietary claim either upon the Keerthanas or songs of Annamayya or upon any biography of Annamayya s life, insistence that script be reviewed before the third respondent is permitted to make the film is not sustainable - In course of the hearing of the application, however, the places at which the third and fourth respondents have intended to have shooting have been critically examined and it is found that, except such areas which form part of the Seven Hills, making of the film at sites other than the Hills, which were visited or frequented by Annamayya, is not likely to affect the sanctity and holiness of the Seven Hills of Tirumala and will also not be against the public interest - application allowed
( 1 ) A feature film on the life of Saint Poet Annamayya, it is alleged, is in the process of making by the third respondent, the producer of the film and the fourth respondent, the Director of the film. Annamayya, it is said, was a great devotee of the Lord of the Seven Hills called tirumala , Lord Venkateswara or Balaji, who is worshipped by a multitude of devotees drawn from all parts of the country and abroad. Petitioner herein has invoked this Court s jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking, inter alia, a direction for a reference of the script to a Committee of Experts to verify whether it is in conformity of the life of Tallapakam Annamayya or not and for an order against the first and second respondents not to permit picturisation of the events in the script on any part of the Hills and at any other places in and around the Hills. Since it is indisputable, we can proceed further to state that Tallapakam Annamayya also called chinnamayya is a celebrated saint, composer, reformer of the fifteenth century India, who has written and composed more than 30,000 Keertanas on Lord Venkateswara and the contemporary life style. The devotional songs composed by him in praise of lord Venktaeswara are a treasure of common folk and his life legend for the worshippers of Lord Venkateswara. The second respondent and others connected with the affairs and management of Tirumala Tirupathi devasthanam have records of songs by the great composer and thus annamayya is a living legend. Petitioner has claimed that he belongs to the line of successors of Annamayya and the Annamayya family introduced various sevas, Utsvas of Lord Venkateswara and even now Annamayya family member is the Kanyadata of Lord Venkateswara Kalyanam every day. At present, his father is serving the God in the capacity of Mirasidar. According to the petitioner, sacred traditions of the temple of Lord Venkatewara at tirumala have been zealously preserved and that part of the religious rights of the devotees of Lord Venkateswara, there has never been any deviation by any person connected with the affairs of the temple in preserving the sacred traditions and not permitting any commercial or such other activities in the name of the temple or Lord Venkateswara by any person other than such activities which are sanctioned for the benefit of the temple. The third and the fourth respondents, however, have chosen, for the purpose of making the commercial feature film, several sites at the Hills and the sacred surroundings of the Hills. The third respondent, who incidentally is the producer of the film, is a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the State. With the help and services of the fourth respondent as the Director of the film and one Nagarjuna, hero of the film, portraying the character of annamayya , besides some popular heroines, the third respondent is making the film. It is alleged that the third respondent made representation to the second respondent for permission to shoot some parts of the film at Tirumala. When his representation was placed at a meeting of the Trust Board, his request for shooting the film at Tirumala was rejected. He repeated his request by yet another representation. This time also the Trust Board declined to grant any permission. The second respondent, however, has yielded, allegedly, to pressure and on the basis of a communication on behalf of the first respondent- government of the State of Andhra Pradesh permitted the shooting of the film at places at and around Tirumala and the Office of the Executive Officer of the second respondent has issued orders accordingly, which reads as follows:"in pursuance of the Govt. Memo first cited and Resolution of TTD Board second read above, permission is, hereby, accorded to the Proprietor, vmc Productions, Hyderabad, to take film shooting for,the film "annamayya" in the following select locations without any commitment to TTD and subject to the following
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