CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department to hold a roving inquiry to retrieve temple properties from the illegal occupants.
Temple properties across the state have been encroached upon without the knowledge of temple authorities and the HR&CE. Either the trustees or temple administrators have suppressed the facts regarding donation of properties made to the temples and the deities, said Justice SM Subramaniam, in an order passed on Monday.
Saying that the competent authorities of the department are bound to cull out the truth, he ordered, “They have to conduct a roving enquiry, collect documents and initiate all appropriate action to resume the properties belonging to the temples and religious institutions.”
The judge issued the direction while dismissing a petition filed by V Kumar of Chennai seeking an order to the sub-registrar of Thousand Lights to register a property he had purchased, but it later came to be known that it belonged to a temple.