CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has halted Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) department's ambitious temple gold monetisation programme.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee on Thursday ordered that temple gold cannot be melted without the stamp of approval of the trustees.
The order was passed on petitions filed by Saravanan and Gopal Krishnan who prayed for orders to quash the Sept. 9 GO issued by HR&CE department regarding the gold monetisation programme.
Despite ordering the department to restrain from melting gold, the bench, also consisting of Justice PD Audikesavalu, allowed the three-member committee led by a retired Supreme Court judge to go ahead with inspecting the inventory.
The HR&CE has planned to melt 2137 kg of unused gold ornaments received through devotees' offering into gold bars and deposit them in nationalised banks. The interest accrued will be used for maintenance and improvement works in temples.
The programme was recently launched by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin. Right-wing organizations have been crying foul over the programme from the beginning itself. However, the government had stated that such a program was in vogue since 1977 and 500 kg of gold have been melted so far and deposited in banks -- earning an interest of Rs 11 crore.