HC moved for safeguarding 28,609 acres of temple land in Vedaranyam

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the State government to file its response in three weeks on a petition filed for protecting the 28,609 acres of land belonging to Arulmigu Vedapureeswarar temple in Vedaranyam town of Nagapattinam district.

The first bench, consisting of, Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala passed the direction on hearing a plea by A Radhakrishnan, an activist, and president of Thiruthondar Sabai- a spiritual organization.

The petitioner sought a direction to the Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments department and the state government to consider his representation submitted to them for securing and safeguarding the vast extent of lands belonging to the Vedapureeswarar temple.

“As per the surveys made by the state government, Vedapureeswarar temple has 28,609 acres of land. However, most of the lands are currently under encroachment. Even though I made a representation in August 2021 to concerned authorities to safeguard this vast extent of lands, they have not taken any action, ” the petitioner submitted.

Recording the submissions, the CJ MN Bhandari directed the state government and HR&CE department to file their response in three weeks.