Erosion of a culture results in elimination of identity and slowly leads to extinguishment. Therefore, the government is duty bound to protect the archaeological and cultural heritage of the State by preserving the historical monuments including temples, their properties, folklore, arts, murals and all activities related to them, the Madras High Court has said.
Justices R. Mahadevan and P.D. Audikesavalu said: “The ancient temples in Tamil Nadu, the most in the country, carry a cultural heritage. The temple lands gifted by pious philanthropists play a very important role in the sustenance of temples and it is the duty of the administrators of the temples, for which endowments have been made, to preserve the same.”
The judges went on to write: “The Kings, who ruled the State then with different geographical divisions, were all unified in building, maintaining and preserving the temples, charities and allied activities. Now, all that could be expected of the State government is to take appropriate and continuous action to preserve the temples and its properties left over by the donors.”
Highlighting the role of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department, the mutts and every individual in preserving the culture, the judges said, it was in that direction, they had issued a set of 75 directions on June 7, 2021 while disposing of a suo motu writ petition taken up by the court in 2015 to protect ancient monuments.
Disposing of a review petition filed by the State government to clarify eight out of the 75 directions, the judges refused to modify their order for constitution of a 17-member Heritage Commission, comprising experts from all fields, to identify the historical monuments and temples and supervise their restoration and repair works.
The Bench also reiterated its direction to fix the salary and other service and retirement benefits of all temple staff including that of Archaka and Oduvar as per the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act. It said that just because the scheme of administration of a temple contemplates payment of salary from its income, minimum wages could not be denied to the staff.
“The State is under constitutional obligation, to ensure a decent living for all the workers and their families... Therefore, the State is bound to comply with the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act in respect of the temple employees,” the judges said and suggested that unnecessary expenses could be cut down to pay a decent salary to the staff.
The judges said, even the non hereditary trustees could be paid an honorarium in order to ensure more accountability.
