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K. Aggrieved, the respondent no.6 filed Writ Appeal No.181 of 2009. The present appellant Dr. Subramanian Swamy was allowed by the High Court to be impleaded as a party. The Writ Appeal has been dismissed vide impugned judgment and order dated 15.9.2009.

Hence, these appeals.

3. The appellant-in-person has submitted that Article 26 of the Constitution confers certain fundamental rights upon the citizens and particularly, on a ‘religious denomination’ which can neither be taken away nor abridged. In the instant case, the Dikshitars had been declared by this Court, in a lis between Dikshitars and the State and the Religious Endowments Commissioner, that they were an acknowledged `religious denomination’ and in that capacity they had a right to administer the properties of the Temple. Though in view of the provisions of Section 45 read with Section 107 of the Act 1959, the State may have a power to regulate the activities of the Temple, but lacks competence to divest the Dikshitars from their right to manage and administer the Temple and its properties. It was strenuously contended that the High Court committed an error by holding that the earlier judgment of the Division Bench in Marimuthu Dikshitar (Supra) would not operate as res judicata. Therefore, the appeal deserves to be allowed.