The Madras High Court on Wednesday wanted to know whether a newspaper publication calling for public objections was issued before the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department decided to use ₹28.76 crore of Mylapore Kapaleeswarar Temple funds for constructing a cultural centre on 22.80 grounds of temple land at Raja Annamalaipuram in Chennai.
A summer vacation Bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and P.B. Balaji granted time till Thursday for Advocate General P.S. Raman to obtain instructions from the HR&CE department. The judges pointed out that the rules require the HR&CE Commissioner to publish the provisional decision, to divert surplus temple funds, in a Tamil daily and call for objections, if any, from the public.
When Justice Swaminathan wanted to know whether this procedure had been followed, the A-G replied that he had no instructions on it. The latter, however, vehemently opposed a public interest litigation petition filed by temple activist T.R. Ramesh, against the use of temple funds and said, “The proposal has emanated from the temple trustees... It is not as if they are going to construct a five star hotel. It is only a cultural centre.”
The A-G also stated that the trustees would be in a better position to decide what should be done with the temple funds than a devotee approaching the summer vacation court in May 2024 challenging a Government Order issued on September 4, 2023. The court was also told that the construction of the cultural centre would not take place until the grant of approval by Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA).
On his part, advocate Niranjan Rajagopalan, representing the PIL petitioner, stated that the guideline value of the 22.80 grounds of land owned by the temple at South Kesavaperumalpuram in R.A. Puram was ₹16,000 per square feet and that the market value would be much higher. Therefore, renting out the land itself would fetch a fair rent of nothing less than ₹10 crore every year for the temple, he said.
Questioning the need for constructing a cultural centre on such a valuable property by spending ₹28.76 crore of temple money, he said, it would amount to wasting around ₹117 crore since the value of the entire extent of the temple land was ₹88 crore. This was notwithstanding the recurring revenue that the temple could earn by renting out the property for fair rent, the counsel said.
It was also brought to the notice of the court that the rules require any proposal for diversion of surplus funds of a temple to emanate at the first instance from the trustees and then approved by the HR&CE Commissioner after following due procedures. However, in the present case, it was the HR&CE Minister P.K. Sekarbabu who had made the announcement first in the Legislative Assembly on May 4, 2022.
It was thereafter that a proposal had been obtained from the trustees and then approved by the HR&CE Commissioner without even calling for public objections, he said and insisted on quashing the 2023 G.O. through which administrative sanction had been accorded for the use of temple money to construct the cultural centre on the temple land.
