Chennai, 14 December (H.S.) : The Madras High Court has issued a directive for four key officials, including the Commissioner of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department, to appear in person on January twelve to explain the considerable delay in recovering properties belonging to a temple. This stern action was taken by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan, while hearing a contempt of court petition.
The case involves lands belonging to the Chinna Kesava Perumal Temple in the Perambattu village of Tirupattur district. The High Court had earlier, in September two thousand twenty-three, ordered the HR&CE Department to take decisive steps to recover all temple properties within a six-month period. Following the alleged non-compliance with this clear directive, S. Natarajan filed a contempt petition against the concerned officials.
The bench has ordered the HR&CE Commissioner, the Joint Commissioner for Vellore, and the HR&CE Inspector in Tirupattur to personally appear before the court and explain why the initial order was not implemented within the specified timeframe.
In a related action, the court also summoned the Tirupattur Tahsildar to submit an explanation for the alleged delay of more than a year in transferring the land patta into the temple's name. The matter stands adjourned until the mandated appearance date.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Dr. R. B. Chaudhary
