The Madras High Court has called for the response of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department to the allegation that it had used temple properties and funds for construction of its offices, purchase of luxury cars and other purposes, in complete violation of the rules and regulations.
Justices R. Mahadevan and P.D. Audikesavalu directed temple activist T.R. Ramesh to file an additional affidavit listing out the allegations levelled by him on the basis of information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2005 and directed Special Government Pleader N.R.R. Arun Natarajan to file a reply.
Accordingly, Mr. Ramesh has filed an additional affidavit insisting upon an external audit and constitution of a special investigation team (SIT) led by an officer of the rank of Inspector General of Police to prosecute the government and HR&CE officials who had misused temple properties and funds over the past two decades.
Mr. Ramesh has also sought for a direction to the State government as well as the HR&CE Department to ensure reparation to temple properties that had been usurped and restoration of the temple funds, along with 7.95% interest compounded annually, on the basis of the reports to be submitted by the external auditors.
The petitioner contended that his success rate under the RTI Act was less than 10% and yet he had been able to unearth the huge amount of “criminal misappropriation” of temple funds and properties by the HR&CE Department in violation of the provisions of the HR&CE Act and the statutory rules framed thereunder.
‘Offices constructed with temple funds’
Claiming that the RTI replies had confirmed that money belonging to various temples in the State had been used to purchase computers for HR&CE offices and even for repairing the toilets in those offices, the petitioner asked: “Is it for this purpose that crores of devotees put their money in the temple Hundials (donation boxes)?”
The petitioner said that offices for the HR&CE Department’s Mayiladuthurai regional joint commissioner and assistant commissioner had been constructed on land belonging to Sri Sammanthar Temple at Sitharkadu. The construction cost amounting to ₹99 lakh had been taken from four different temple funds.
Similarly, the Madurai regional joint commissioner and assistant commissioner offices had been built on land belonging to the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple and the construction cost of ₹98 lakh was taken from five different temples. Another ₹75 lakh was taken from three temples for laying the flooring, installing windows and painting.
The litigant also accused the HR&CE Department of splitting the construction costs and deliberately keeping it below ₹1 crore to avoid issuance of government orders for the tender process. He said, the Tiruchi regional joint commissioner and assistant commissioner offices too had been constructed on Thiruvanaikaval Jambukeswarar Temple land. The total construction cost had been split into ₹94 lakh, ₹41`lakh and ₹11.50 lakh to bypass government approval and the entire expenditure had been misappropriated from the surplus funds of 10 temples, he said.
It was further alleged that the offices for Vellore region had now been planned on land belonging to a Hindu Religious and Charitable Trust. The petitioner urged the court to restrain the HR&CE Department from appropriating the property belonging to the Chinni Ramaswamy Trust. He also relied upon RTI replies to claim that the HR&CE Department had used temple funds to purchase high-end Toyota Innova cars costing ₹30 lakh for the use of VIPs.
