Appoint trustees before melting temple gold: Madras HC

The first division bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice PD Audikesavalu passed the direction on hearing two writ petitions moved by AV Gopalakrishnan and Indic Collective’s president TR Ramesh. “But no decision to melt the jewels or dispose of any valuables which form part of offerings at relevant temples should be taken without the trustees being appointed,” the court held. 

Earlier, Indic Collective’s counsels Niranjan Rajagopal and Sai Deepak and Gopalakrishnan’s counsel Pradeep Sancheti argued that the government does not have the power to take decisions on the functioning of temples. “The notification issued by the HR&CE commissioner to monetise temple jewels violates the rules of the Religious Institutions Custody of Jewels, Valuables and Documents and Disposal Rules, 1961 of Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959. It means that the commissioner, HR & CE, cannot independently decide on melting the gold,” advocate Sai Deepak argued. 

On recording the submission, the bench said, “First, put the trustees in place. Without trustees in place, there is no balance to the HR&CE Act. You make a statement that we will record that the melting of gold will not be carried out till such time that trustees are put in place. You (the government) may be doing things fairly. But all of this is happening unilaterally,” the Chief Justice held. The HC asked the state to file a counter within four weeks and listed the matter to December 15, 2021.