JUDGMENT

Devan Ramachandran, J.

Prefatorily speaking, at the heart of all the allegations in these writ petitions; one of which has been filed by the President of a prominent political party, one by the former President of the Travancore Devaswom Board, the third by a registered Association of Thantris of various temples in Kerala and the last by an individual who claims to be a devotee and General Secretary of a registered Association of various “Hindu groups”, is indubitably an apprehension that certain amendments made to the Travancore- Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act, 1950 (for short, “TCHRI Act”), through the Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions (Amendment) Act, 2018 (Act 26 of 2018), is to illegally facilitate the appointment of a “non-Hindu” as the Commissioner of the Devaswoms governed by the TCHRI Act.

2. The ossature on which the contentions of the various petitioners are edificed in these writ petitions; which we are considering together in this judgment on account of the analogous nature of the factual circumstances and reliefs prayed for, is that through the amendments made to the TCHRI Act, the Government obliquely is attempting to appoint a person who