Temple land will stay with God : Madras High Court

This is a slap for the AIDMK Government of Tamil Nadu which wanted to regularise the encroachment of the temple land !

Chennai – Parcels of temple land in Tamil Nadu running into thousands of crores of Rupees will continue to remain in God’s possession, as the Madras High Court on 22^nd November stayed the operation of a controversial Government order which proposed to cede the encroached pieces of temple land to encroachers.

Staying a part of the 30^th August Government order that seeks to ‘regularise’ non-objectionable temple land encroached by squatters for more than five years, a Division Bench of Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice N Seshasayee also directed the Tamil Nadu Government to file a report on the number of temples administered by Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department, parcels of lands owned by them with survey numbers, details of encroachment on such lands, action taken against encroachers and officials who failed to take action against encroachers, by 20th January 2020.

“Any attempt to regularise encroachers and sanctify encroachments are likely to denude the temples of their properties and any act that brought losses of properties of temples for purposes other than those intended for the benefit or necessity of temple may well contravene the spirit behind the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, and this process would also more likely to render the Act otiose,” said the judges.