Take back temple property from RB Choudary: HC

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court directed the State to retrieve a land belonging to Arulmigu Agastheeswarar Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal, Chennai, from the popular film producer RB Choudary within three months.

RB Choudary and his vendor, ME Siddiqa moved the HC seeking to set aside the court order which declared that the sale of the land to the extent of 1 ground and 378 square feet, at Seetha Nagar, Nungambakkam, is executed without any valid title and the transaction as void.

City Tenants Protection Act is not maintainable and has no applicability in respect of the temple properties, wrote a division bench comprising Justice SM Subramaniam and K Rajasekar while dismissing the appeal.

Encroachments upon temple property by tenants is a serious legal issue that demands stringent enforcement of property laws and respect for religious sentiments, read the judgment.

Further, the bench directed the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department to resume the property from the petitioners and utilize it for the interest of the temple administration.

Temple authorities must be vigilant in protecting their land holdings, while tenants must adhere to the terms of their lease agreements, the bench said.

People entrusted with the duty of safeguarding temple properties have misappropriated such properties by setting up false claims of ownership or tenancy, or adverse possession. Such acts of ‘fence eating the crop’ should be dealt with sternly, HC said.

In 1987, the temple administration approached the 13th assistant city civil court in Chennai for the recovery of the 1 ground 378 sq ft land from lessees N.Meeran and N.Sherif, as they defaulted to pay the lease.

Consequently, the lessees filed a petition under Section 9 of the Tamil Nadu City Tenant Protection Act, 1921, claiming the title of the property. The court fixed the value of the property at Rs 20,842 and directed the temple administration to execute the sale in favor of the lessees if they paid the fixed amount.

The erstwhile trustee of the temple, R Valliammal executed a sale deed in favour of the lessees in 1990. The lessees transferred the title to Siddiqa, which was objected by the temple administration, hence the sub-registrar refused to register the sale document.

Siddiqa sold the property to Super Good Films owned by RB Choudary, however, the joint sub registrar, Thousand Lights, refused to register it. Later, RB Choudary and Siddiqa moved the HC for relief, however, the court dismissed the petition in 2022 by declaring that the alienation of the temple lands by way of sale to the tenants was perverse. Aggrieved by this RB Choudary and his vendor moved the high court to set aside the order.