MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Monday ordered status quo to be maintained with respect to construction work being undertaken in the Kallazhagar temple premises in Madurai.
A bench of justices Anita Sumanth and C Kumarappan passed the interim order on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by AVB Prabhu of Madurai seeking to stop the work and to restore the temple funds utilized for it.
In his petition, Prabhu stated that as of May 2021, the Kallazhagar temple had nearly Rs 85 crore, which was invested in bank deposits and other government corporations.
However, the funds dwindled in the last four years due to ‘unscrupulous’ actions of the HR&CE department authorities who undertake several projects in the ancient temple in violation of various provisions of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Act, 1959, without obtaining approvals and inputs from the Archaeological Survey of India, Heritage Commission and local authorities, he added.
On October 11, 2024, the then executive officer of the temple awarded a contract for an ‘Iconic Project’, which is to be carried out in the temple at a cost of Rs 38.72 crore, to a Erode-based company. The project included construction of a Yatri Nivas, Archakar quarters, guest house, restaurants, shops, sewage treatment plant and overhead water tanks, Prabhu said.
Further, he claimed that the appointment of the executive officer was questionable and invalid and the works cited were non-religious in nature and therefore impermissible under the Act, and that some of works lacked the required feasibility study to be deemed even necessary.
The judges ordered status quo and adjourned the case to September 15.
It may be recalled that the court, while hearing a similar petition last week, had ordered an interim injunction with respect to three of the above works - construction of restaurant, VIP guesthouse and shopping complex.