Madras HC comes down heavily on TN Government for failing to recover encroached temple lands

Editor’s comments

• It is shameful that the Judiciary has to intervene repeatedly to save Hindu temples !
• The Governments in the respective states ought to do this on their own.

The Madras High Court on 15^th July lashed out at the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department of the Tamil Nadu Government for its failure to act on the increasing complaints filed in the Court about the misappropriation of temple properties.

Madras High Court comes down heavily on Tamil Nadu govt for failing to recover encroached temple lands, warns strong actionhttps://t.co/iMK8a5JUHT

— OpIndia.com (@OpIndia_com) July 16, 2021

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.

“We note that in most cases pertaining to temples under the HR&CE Department, the officials concerned have been negligent in resuming temple properties that had been transferred to others unauthorisedly. Unless immediate measures are taken by the Department, more drastic measures may be called for”, the Court warned.