CUDDALORE: The dikshithars of the Nataraja Temple at Chidambaram on Tuesday refused to furnish the temple’s account details to the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department’s inquiry committee, which visited the temple amid heavy police deployment.
On behalf of the dikshithars, advocate G Chandrasekhar gave a letter to the officials which stated that as per a 2011 Madras High Court judgment, the deputy commissioner or any other authority in the department cannot automatically call for the entire records or accounts dealing with a ‘public temple’ directly under the control of the department.
The dikshithars told the committee that the details would be furnished only before a panel formed by a court. Meanwhile, HR&CE Minister Sekar Babu said there is a provision under the HR&CE Act to inspect the temple’s records on receipt of public complaints. He pointed out that the HR&CE assistant commissioner had written to the dikshithars about the inspection to be held on June 7 and 8.
In the letter, the department had asked the dikshithars to keep the details of accounts, income, and expenditure of the temple from 2014, along with the details of its assets, jewels, and valuables, ready before the inspection. Though the dikshithars sent a letter with their objection to this on June 1, a reply was given on June 3, the minister said, and added:
“There will be no prejudice in the inspection and rule of law will be followed. If there are no problems in the temple, they should allow the officials to conduct the inspection. Only offering such cooperation will be manuneethi, manu dharma.” The minister had, on Monday, visited the temple and held talks with the dikshithars. On Tuesday morning, the inquiry panel visited the temple and held a meeting with the dikshithars, during which Chandrasekhar gave the letter to them.
Govt has no right to call for temple records: Dikshithars
The letter read: “As per Section 107 of the HR&CE Act, 1959, read with the judicial order cited in the reference above, officials would agree that it is amply clear that the HR&CE department or its authorities do not have such a jurisdiction to automatically call for records or make an inspection in this denominational temple at will.
We reiterate that we maintain all accounts and other records as per our bye-laws of our Temple Sattam.” The letter further said they would give full cooperation to a “validly-formed committee that has jurisdiction of verification and audit.”
“We, therefore request you to withdraw the inspection and also call for records and accounts in obedience to the orders of the Madras High Court and Supreme Court,” it added. Though the committee continued to hold talks with Chandrasekhar to avail the details on Tuesday afternoon, he said the stand of the dikshithars was clear. Later, the committee left the temple.
Both the dikshithars and the members of the committee refused to talk about the inspection. The panel consisted of Palani Arulmigu Dhandayuthapaniswamy Temple joint commissioner N Natarajan, Vellore district joint commissioner C Lakshmanan, Perambalur district joint commissioner Aravindan, Tirunelveli zone auditing officer Rajendran, HR&CE department temple lands’ district revenue officer Sugumar, and committee coordinator C Jothi.