The Madras High Court has issued a significant oral observation, stating that the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department is “duty-bound” to proactively upload all government orders, tender notifications, and financial information pertaining to temples on its website, emphasizing that this involves “the amount of the devotees.”
The directive came during a hearing of a writ petition (WP No. 39448 of 2025) filed by temple activist TR Ramesh, who sought a mandamus to compel the HR&CE Department to comply with Section 4(1)(b) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, which mandates proactive disclosure of information by public authorities.
20 years since the Right to Information Act, 2005 came into force. The @tnhrcedept is one of the worst offenders of the RTI Act, 2005.
They do not disclose anything on their website as mandatorily required under Section 4 of the Act. They do not give information validly… pic.twitter.com/Ahno0IGXYL
— trramesh (@trramesh) October 17, 2025
During the proceedings before Justice V. Lakshminarayanan, the petitioner’s counsel, B Jagannath, presented a screenshot as evidence showing that the last update on the HR&CE website was from 2022. He argued that the department, which claims to be a “vibrant department,” was failing to disclose crucial secular and financial information, including tenders and government orders.
The court noted that it was “nobody’s case that the HR and CE Department has become dysfunctional post 2022,” implicitly questioning the department’s lack of transparency over the past three years. The judge made a key oral observation that the information sought does not fall under the Official Secrets Act and must be uploaded in accordance with the law.
The standing counsel for the HR&CE Department, S. Ravichandran requested time to file a counter-affidavit. The court has adjourned the matter to 29 October 2025, for the respondents to obtain instructions and file their response.
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