The Madras High Court on Thursday wondered how can the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department take an unilateral decision to use ₹45 crore from the funds of three different temples in the State to construct old age homes at Palani in Dindigul district, Tirunelveli and Chennai.
A Division Bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said, they were prima facie satisfied that the department had no authority to use the temple funds, for purposes other than maintenance of the temples, in the absence of a board of trustees to manage those temples and their properties.
Hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by temple activist T.R. Ramesh, the judges were initially inclined to stay the operation of a Government Order issued on January 12 for using the funds of the Dhandayudhapaniswamy Temple in Palani, the Nellaiappar temple in Tirunelveli and the Devi Baaliamman temple in Chennai.
