Supreme Court Seeks Record Information On Temple From Tamil Nadu Government

The Supreme Court on Monday directed Tamil Nadu government to bring on record information related to temples where the process of appointment of trustees in temples is complete or underway.

The bench of Justice A.S. Bopara and Justice Hima Kohli passed the above order while hearing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) seeking appointment of trustee committees for the temples in the state as per the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959.

“List after 4 weeks to enable the respondents to bring on record information related to temples where process of appointment has been complete, where the process is underway & in which some extra time will be taken to complete the process,” the court ordered.

The Hindu Dharma Parishad (HDP) in its petition sought appointment of Arangavalar Committee (Trustee Committee) headed by Retired Judge in all Hindu Temples with a social activist, a devotee, a Scheduled Caste (SC) person and a woman as its members to manage the Temples.

The HDP filed the appeal in response to Madras High Court’s decision to dismiss its writ seeking similar relief. It was argued before the High Court that several Hindu Temples in Tamil Nadu were not maintained well and destroyed.

Previously, the state informed the Supreme Court that the process of appointing trustees in temples had begun in phases for 1,045 temples and that the appointments would be completed in six months.

The affidavit noted, “The Trust Board is formed, in order to run the day-to-day administration of the religious institutions and also to implement various welfare schemes, renovation works and development activities, benefitting devotees, fit persons appointed under the Act are functioning.”

The state government has told the Supreme Court that it is practically impossible to appoint a Trust Board of retired judges for each and every temple, citing the fact that over 38,000 temples are administered by individual and separate Trust Boards.

The state has also called the plea inaccurate for asserting that all temples have lakhs of acres of land, thousands of buildings, and crores of rupees in gold and diamond ornaments.