Trustees will be appointed for temples soon, HR and CE dept informs Madras High Court

State Advocate General (AG) R Shunmugasundaram made this submission before the first bench of Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and PD Audikesavalu. 

The judges were heating a plea by advocate Jagan Nathan challenging the HR&CE’s decision to lease out 250 acres of temple land in Achirupakkam.

The petitioner submitted that as per the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Act, 1959, the government cannot pass any orders without appointing the trustees in the temple. 

“However, on November 24, 2021, the HR&CE department issued a notification to lease out of 250 acres of land owned by Vijaya Varadarajaperumal Temple, Achirupakkam, Chengalpattu district,” the petitioner submitted.

Reacting to this, the AG assured the HC that the trustees will be appointed soon for a significant number of HR&CE temples.

On recording the submissions, the HC, despite allowing the State to conduct the auction proceedings, asked the government not to finalise anything. The matter was posted to December 15.