MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Monday issued notice to the Commissioner of Land Administration (CLA), High Court Registry and the Madurai Collector on a petition filed by the Kothandaramaswamy Temple in Madurai, against deduction of Rs 8.81 crore from the compensation paid to the temple for the acquisition of a 6.5 acre temple land situated in front of the high court premises in the district.
The above land was acquired for the expansion of the high court. Pursuant to various directions issued by the high court bench over delay in acquisition proceedings, a sum of Rs 25.4 cr was sanctioned by the government in August last year towards payment of compensation to the temple.
However, the district revenue officer, who acted as the land acquisition officer, passed an order on September 18, 2025, deducting Rs 8.81 cr from the compensation amount towards ‘Land development charges’ and paid only Rs 17.63 cr, which has been deposited before the Principal District Court, Madurai as per the court’s directions.
Challenging this, the fit person of the temple stated in his petition that the authority failed to consider the objections of the temple before passing the deduction order.
The land has been acquired for the high court and not for housing development or for SIPCOT. Hence, there is no question of levying land development charges, he added. A bench of justices N Sathish Kumar and M Jothiraman issued notice to the authorities and adjourned the case to June 24.
