The Madras HC recently came down heavily on the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department of the Tamil Nadu government asking it to initiate proceedings to recover the encroached lands of Sri Ramanaadheswarar temple at Palnankuppam.

According to Law Beat, the court was hearing a place filed by a devotee of the Sri Rananaadheswarar temple, which urged the court to direct the Commissioner of HR&CE to initiate proceedings to recover three and a half acres of land belonging to the Sri Ramanaadheswarar temple at Palnankuppam from encroachers.

Hearing a plea, Justice Subramaniam of Madras High Court observed that the Hindu Religious Charitable Endowment Department is bound to protect temple properties and their belongings.

“When the petitioner made a complaint that the temple properties are encroached upon without even paying the rent and an attempt is taken to alienate the temple properties, the authorities are duty-bound to conduct enquiry and initiate all appropriate action for the purpose of protecting the temple properties,” the court observed.

Noting that the petitioner’s affidavit revealed that certain transactions had been brought to the attention of the authorities, the Court ordered the Commissioner of HR&CE to take all necessary steps to protect the temple properties, as well as to evict the encroachers and reclaim the temple properties in accordance with the law.

The Commissioner was also given a deadline of twelve weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of the order to finish the exercise.

What the petition filed before the Madras HC read

It may be noted that the petitioner had informed the court that the temple property is being encroached upon without paying any rent to the temple and that the encroachers were also attempting to illegally sell the temple land. It was also said that efforts are being made to manipulate the revenue records and therefore urgent actions are required.

The court was informed that certain illegal transactions had occurred on temple property, which had been brought to the attention of the appropriate authorities, including HR& CE, however, the commissioner did not take any action, and the petitioners were forced to file a writ petition with the court.

After hearing the plea, the court lashed out at the Tamil Nadu government-managed HR&CE Department and ordered it to initiate proceedings to recover the encroached lands of Sri Ramanaadheswarar temple at Palnankuppam at the earliest.

Court slams on Tamil Nadu govt for failing to recover encroached temple lands, warns strong action

It may be recalled that last year too, the Madras HC had come down heavily at that HR&CE department for its failure to act on the increasing complaints filed in the court about the misappropriation of temple properties. The court also warned the department that it might have to come down hard if the Department did not act on its own to recover encroached temple lands.

The observations were made by Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy while hearing a contempt of court petition filed against top government officials for having failed to recover the encroached lands of the Agatheshwarar Temple at Nungambakkam. 

References:

opindia.com