Chennai (IANS). The Madras High Court on Wednesday pulled up the Tamil Nadu government for non-payment of outstanding rent to the Ardhanarishwara temple in Veeracholapuram for construction of Kallakurichi collectorate and other buildings on the temple property.
Former chairman of the board of trustees of Adalat Mandir S. Davigan was responding to a public interest litigation (PIL). The petitioner had complained that the government had not paid the outstanding rent of Rs 57.60 lakh as per the court order and had not renovated the temple which was in a dilapidated condition. The court had earlier passed an order to pay the advance deposit due on March 30, 2023, and arrears of monthly rent at the rate of Rs 1.6 lakh from July 2020. The first bench of the Madras High Court included Justice S.V. Shamil Gangapurwala and Justice P.D. The advocate general was questioned about the delay in depositing the money in the temple’s account even after instructions from Audikesavalu. The advocate general sought two months from the bench to deposit the money, but the court refused to accept the plea and directed the state government to make the payment in the next four weeks. Counsel for the petitioner N.Gr. Prasad told the court that activist Rangarajan Narasimhan had filed a writ petition in 2020 against the use of temple land for the construction of the collectorate, superintendent of police office, other government offices and district courts for Kallakurichi district. Which was carved out of Villupuram district. Rangarajan Narasimhan’s writ petition was argued for three years and on March 30, 2020, a Madras High Court bench of then Acting Chief Justice T. Raja and Justice D. Bharat Chakraborty allowed the government to continue with the construction. However, the court directed the government to lease an area of 34.817 acres at the rate of 1.6 lakhs as monthly rent. The court had also directed the government to pay the dues from 2020.
