KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to file an affidavit in response to a petition seeking a directive to pay the arrears of annuity due to the Padmanabha Swamy temple, Thiruvananthapuram.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Anil K Narendran and Justice PG Ajith Kumar issued the directive on a petition filed by Shilpa Nair, President, People for Dharma.
The petitioner argued that the government had taken over the vast stretch of the land in the possession of the temple following the implementation of the Kerala Land Reforms Act with the assurance of payment of perpetual annuity. The annuity of Rs 58,500 had been fixed in 1971 in lieu of the compensation for the loss of rent on such lands. In fact, the annuity had never been revised since then. Now with the Covid crisis, the temple had not been in a position to meet even the daily temple expense and had to impose cut on the salaries of the employees. Besides, the donation from the public had drastically fallen. The temple was in dire straits.
A representation had been given to the Chief Minister of Kerala demanding revision of the annual rents on the properties of the temple. It sought to fix the amount at Rs 25,000 per acre per annum and revision upwards by 25 per cent every four years. The representation also urged the State government to explore the option of giving back the non-agricultural land. But, there had been no response from the government. The functioning of the temple was severely impaired, argued the petitioner.
The court also allowed a petition seeking to implead the executive officer of the temple in the petition.
Advocates- J Sai Deepak and Suvidutt Sundaram appeared for the petitioner.