The Tamil Nadu government can present a tax-free budget if the Department of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) succeeds in recovering thousands of crores of rupees in rental arrears from those occupying temple land, besides retrieving several lakh acres under illegal occupation and putting these properties to good use, Justice R. Mahadevan of the Madras High Court said on Friday.
“The government need not give any freebies at all to people if the HR&CE Department retrieves the temple lands and recovers the rental arrears. Until that goal is achieved, we [the court] will also not leave the issue,” the senior judge told Special Government Pleader N.R.R. Arun Natarajan, while presiding over a special Division Bench, along with Justice P.D. Audikesavalu, to hear a batch of temple-related cases.
