CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department on Thursday informed the Madras High Court that it has collected documentary evidence for the sale of land belonging to the Natarajar Temple at Chidambaram in Cuddalore district by the Podhu Dikshitars managing the temple.
Special Government Pleader NRR Arun Natarajan made the submission before a special bench of Justices R Suresh Kumar and S Sounthar, handling temple-related cases, when a case filed by the HR&CE department seeking a direction to the Podhu Dikshitars to submit the accounts of the temple’s revenue and expenditure came up for hearing on Thursday.
A status report filed by joint commissioner (legal) of the department in the court stated that 12.5 acres of temple land was sold to Sri Ramulu Naidu and another 5.5 acres of land was sold to Annamalai University in 1974, 1985 and 1988, as per the documents registered with the local sub-registrar office.
The court was told that as of now 507 acres of land is with the temple.
Senior counsel CS Vaidyanathan, appearing for the Podhu Dikshitars, however, denied the sale of land belonging to the temple.
He requested the court to appoint a retired HC judge to hold inquiries into the extent of land belonging to the temple.
Saying that all the jewellery belonging to the temple has been accounted for, the counsel informed that none of them have gone missing.
A sealed cover on the accounts of the temples revenue and expenditure between 2018 and 2022 was also filed by the Podhu Dikshitars.
Directing the Podhu Dikshitars to file a counter affidavit to the report of the HR&CE, the bench adjourned the hearing to November 14.