Madras High Court raps State over delay in strong room for idols

Even then, the directions that were given by the Court have not been implemented fully.”

Also, noting that the Court will not give any more time and if any more delay is caused, the Court will not hesitate to direct the appearance of Chief Secretary, the judge posted the case for further hearing to August 30.

However, during the hearing the AAG submitted that since the Commissioner of HR&CE department has appeared in person there is no need for ordering the appearance of the Chief Secretary.

To this, Justice R Mahadevan said, “The High Court has powers to order the appearance of the Chief Secretary and if need arises the Court can order the appearance of Chief Secretary.”

The matter relates to continuing idol thefts in Tamil Nadu and related issues against which a batch of petitions were moved. Justice Mahadevan, who directed the State government to appoint IG Pon Manickavel as special officer of investigation with all required infrastructure in Trichy, also offered a slew of directions ranging from construction of strong rooms in the Temples for the safe storage of idols.

It may be noted that the during the last hearing, one of the petitioners Rangarajan Narasimhan of Tiruchy had alleged theft of several precious artefacts from the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam.

Another petitioner ‘Elephant’ Rajendran had submitted that several panchaloha idols at Uma Maheshwarar Temple in Konerirajapuram in Nagapattinam district were kept in a small room with ordinary lock though the value of those idols would run into several crores. The HR&CE department in an earlier hearing had admitted that as many as 372 stone idols and 832 icons belonging to 387 temples were stolen from 1992, despite enhanced security measures.