Madras HC Restrains HR & CE Dept From Setting Up New Colleges With Temple Funds

The Court made the observation and told HR & CE Department to file a counter PIL in 3 weeks and adjourned the case to December 20 for further hearing.

Madras High Court

Chennai: The Madras High Court restrained Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) department from setting up new colleges with temple funds. However, the department has already set up four colleges on Monday. 

According to a report on The Hindu, Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice PD Audikesavalu were hearing a petition filed by TR Ramesh of Indic Collective Trust and Hindu Worshippers Society who questioned the use of temple funds for setting up colleges. He also said that most of the temples in Tamil Nadu do not have trustees and are only administered by interim administrators appointed by the department. 

Taking a note, the judge said, HR & CE only has a voluntary option to provide surplus funds of the temple for the common fund. The judge also said the voluntary fund is robbed if it's done by the interim administrators. The transfer of funds is a larger policy decision that the interim administrators need not take. Even if the administrator continued for several decades in service in the absence of government servants, the administrator will not have any more rights than a caretaker.

Further, the bench said, a stream on religious instruction in the Hindu religion should be introduced in the four colleges to continue to its function. The court also said that the four colleges’ function at places including Kolathur, Paramathi Velur, Thoppampatti and Vilathikulam will be decided only based on the result of the final hearing in the court on this matter.

The Court made the observation and told the HR & CE Department to file a counter PIL in 3 weeks and adjourned the case to December 20 for further hearing.