India News | Evolve Policy to Fix Liability on Officials Who Allow Looting of Temple Properties: HC

Chennai, Feb 7 (PTI) The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to evolve a policy to fix the liability on those officials who allowed looting of the properties of temples across the State.

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In the event of allowing such illegalities to happen on a larger scale, then the department has failed in its objective under the provisions of the HR&CE Act and, therefore, a change in policy decision may be required, the court said.

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"In this context, fixing personal liability on the officials is of paramount importance. The officials not functioning in the interest of the temple are to be identified and their work performance are to be monitored and the Head of the Department is bound to initiate all appropriate actions. If the HoD itself is not functioning efficiently, then the government has to initiate appropriate action. Thus, any lapse or negligence must be viewed seriously," Justice S M Subramaniam said.

The judge was disposing of a writ petition from A Radhakrishnan, who prayed for a direction to the authorities concerned to secure and safeguard the properties of seven temples in various taluks in Krishnagiri district by considering his representations made from from 2016 to December 2021.

Appearing party-in-person, the petitioner submitted that several meetings were conducted by the authorities pursuant to his representations, but no action was taken yet to retrieve the land from the encroachers who were carrying on mining minerals illegally on the lands belonging to the temples in question. The income of Rs 200 crore derived from the illegal mining operations did not go to the temples concerned. Hence, the illegal minings are to be dealt with in the manner known to law.

The judge observed that the allegations raised by the petitioner with documents and evidence are serious in nature. Large-scale allegations are shocking to the conscience of this court.

"Thus, those illegalities and frauds must be brought down and stopped forthwith by initiating all necessary actions. It is not sufficient if the properties are recovered, the financial losses already caused to the temple are also to be recovered by following the procedures as contemplated," the judge said and directed the district Collector to convene a review meeting during the first week of March in the presence of all government department officials and consider the progress made in the matter of dealing with the illegalities, fraudulent activities, illegal mining etc., allegedly going on in respect of temple properties and the actions already initiated for the purpose of recovery of temple properties and to recover the financial losses caused to the temple.

The authorities in the higher echelon should monitor the actions initiated by the respective subordinate officials of the departments concerned and issue appropriate guidelines, instructions or directions wherever required as the case may be and initiate action if there is any lapses, negligence or dereliction of duty on their part.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)