MADURAI
A division bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and R. Hemalatha of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed notice to the board of trustees, incorporated and unincorporated devaswoms, Kanniyakumari, and Joint Commissioner of HR and CE department while hearing a petition seeking appointment of senior IAS officers for administration and maintenance of 490 Hindu temples in Kanniyakumari district.
The petitioner, M. Ayyappan of Kanniyakumari, said that there were 490 devaswoms in the district, 54 of which were major devaswoms maintained by the Joint Commissioner. He said wealth of the dewaswoms was being exploited by politicians who interfered with the affairs of temples.
Also, ineligible persons were appointed to the board of trustees, he said, and contended that the authorities were not even aware of the location of 75% of the temples. The petitioner said in some of the temples no puja was performed and they were in a dilapidated condition.
He said that under Section 97 A of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959, devaswom funds should be utilised for customary and religious ceremonies. But it was not the case.
He added that all the properties of incorporated and unincorporated devaswoms must be recovered from encroachers and handed over to the board of trustees constituted under Section 47 (1)(b) of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act.
