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The Supreme Court has stayed taking over the land which encompasses the 1500 year old Shiva Temple by Tamil Nadu Government on a Plea by Activist Rangarajan Narsimhan.

The Supreme Court on September 17, has stayed the operation of an order passed by the Madras High Court permitting the State government to take 35 acres of the Nareeswarar Temple land at Veeracholapuram on lease for constructing a collectorate for the newly carved out Kallakurichi district.

The Division Bench of Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice Krishna Murari granted the interim stay on an appeal preferred by activist Rangarajan Narasimhan against the Madras High Court order passed on February, 12.

The Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu of Madras High Court had passed the interim stay order on a contempt of court petition filed by Rangaranjan, who had said the court had in April permitted the State to commence only preliminary work but the government has begun construction itself, without obtaining statutory clearances.

Further, in the contempt plea moved in June, the petitioner said the government had neither obtained environmental clearance nor approval from the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP).

He said construction was under way in full swing at the site, in violation of the lockdown restrictions imposed by the government.

According to a report in Swarajya, the issue took a serious turn since Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) laid the foundation stone for the collectorate on 23 October even before the State Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) Department could come forward to hand it over to the government.

As per the appellant/petitioner, the government had initially decided to acquire the temple land for a meagre consideration of ₹1.98 crore and issued a Government Order to that effect on September 19, 2020. Following the same, he opposed the move and filed a writ petition in the High Court.

Subsequently, the State came up with another government order on November 28, 2020 whereby it decided to take the land on lease instead.

The second GO had valued the property at ₹12.89 crore and arrived at a monthly rent of ₹1.3 lakh being 0.01% of the value of the property. Though the value of the property had been increased manifold within a short span of time, the fixation of the value was still flawed since the land was actually worth over ₹336 crore, the appellant claimed.

The petitioner in his plea has averred that, "Section 34 of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Act of 1959 requires the sanction of the Commissioner if a temple property had to be alienated for a term exceeding five years."

Accusing the HR&CE Commissioners of according such sanction for every other State project without considering the welfare of individual temples, the appellant stated that, the November 2020 order does not even specify the period of lease.

Rangarajan also contended that, the move to use the temple lands for constructing buildings for the offices of the Collector, Superintendent of Police and others was in violation of the provisions of Tamil Nadu Change of Land Use (from agriculture to non-agricultural purposes in non-planning areas) Rules of 2017. He stated that the State had taken advantage of the absence of trustees to maintain the temple properties.

Though, he had brought all these issues to the notice of the High Court in his second writ petition challenging the government’s decision to take the temple land on lease, the high court had refused to interfere with the decision to take the property on lease but decided to fix a just compensation by conducting a fair valuation.

Aggrieved over such an order by the Madras High Court, the appellant had moved the present appeal before the Supreme Court and obtained a stay.

 

[Case Title: Rangarajan Narasimhan V. The Addl. Chief Secretary To Govt. Of Tamil Nadu & Ors.]

Access Copy of Order Here