Evict encroachers from lands belonging to T’malai temple: HC

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court directed the Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) department to evict the encroachers from the properties of Tiruvannamalai Arunachaleswarar temple, within six months.

Justice SM Subramaniam ordered the HR&CE to collect all the connected documents belonging to the Arunachaleswarar temple at Tiruvannamalai and initiate all appropriate actions to recover revenue records by submitting necessary applications.

The judge also directed the state to file objections immediately to the jurisdictional registering authorities and to prevent any further illegal alienation of the temple properties under Section 22-A of the Registration Act, 1908.

A petitioner E Manikandan moved the Madras High Court (MHC) to direct the district registrar, Chennai South Registration District to cancel the fraudulent sale deed.

The petitioner submitted that a piece of land in Arunachalapuram, Adyar, Chennai was belonged to Ammayi Ammal, the property was transferred to Sakkaraiyya Pandariyar who was the Executive Trustee of Thiruvannamalai Sri Arunachaleswarar temple devasthanam. The property was donated for developing the ‘Dharmachatra’ in Arunachaleswarar temple at Tiruvannamalai and the original owner executed a ‘will’ in the year 1909, said the petitioner. According to the petitioner, a few greedy men encroached upon the temple properties for their personal gains by creating several fraudulent documents in order to cover up their misdeeds and with the idea to validate the encroachments.

The HR&CE and the temple authorities have miserably failed to guard the temple property from the encroachers, the petitioner said. Some encroachers have alienated the encroached properties and representations were sent by some devotees, but no timely action was initiated, claimed the petitioner.

The special government pleader representing HR&CE filed a set of documents to establish that action has already been initiated not only based on the representation submitted by the petitioner but also by collecting certain documents from the revenue officers and from the offices of HR&CE department. Illegal alienation by encroaching on the temple properties by a few miscreants was also taken cognizance by the temple authorities, he said.

Thus, actions initiated by the HR&CE Commissioner are to be persuaded to ensure the resumption of the temple land and utilise the properties for the benefit of the deity in Arunachaleswarar temple at Thiruvannamalai, he argued. After the submissions the judge directed the HR&CE to evict the encroachers from the properties belonging to the Arunachaleswarar temple and disposed of the petition.