Tamil Nadu to set up district-level panels to appoint temple trustees

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government has told the Madras High Court that the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Department would constitute district-level committees to appoint trustees in temples under it in a span of four weeks.

Advocate General, R. Shanmugasundharam told the court that the Department has already issued advertisements for appointing district-level committee members, and they, in turn, would appoint trustees for these temples.

The department also informed the court that fit persons are managing the affairs of the temples at present as an interim arrangement.

Shanmugasundharam told a bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu that the HR&CE Department would constitute the district-level committees in four weeks as there were several complaints of temples being run without trustees.

The state government was responding to a petition filed by T.R. Ramesh, President of Indic Collective Trust and Temple Worshippers Society, claiming that the HR&CE Department had appointed its staff members as fit persons in temples through deputation, and this violated the Tamil Nadu HR&CE Act of 1959 as also the Fundamental Rules of the Government of Tamil Nadu.

He also said that paying salaries of HR&CE officials on deputation from the temple funds was illegal and impermissible and was directly misuse of temple funds.

Ramesh also requested an interim injunction on HR&CE Department deputing its personnel to the temples, but the court rejected this, saying it would turn counterproductive and temples may be left without any administrator. The court also directed the AG to look into the defects in advertisements pointed out by the litigant that it did not mention the educational qualifications of the candidates, and asked him issue appropriate corrigendum to correct the mistakes, if any.