The Madras High Court has ordered the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department to take possession of lands belonging to Palani Murugan Temple which have fallen into private hands.
The Palani Dandayuthapaniswamy Temple is one of the 6 holy abodes dedicate to Lord Murugan. During the British rule, Queen of England had donated about 60 acres of land to the temple in the year 1863. These lands located in Dharapuram Taluk and Periya Kumarapalayam area were leased to Srirangam Gounder and Ramasamy Gounder for cultivation. After the Inam Abolition Act came into effect, they had approached the Erode court to obtain patta for their lands.
The Erode court ruled that the lands belong to the deity of the Palani Temple and that they cannot claim ownership. This order was upheld by the High Court and the Supreme Court. Following this the temple executive officer filed a case in the Erode Munsiff Court to give the temple the control over the arable land. Both parties had appealed that they had the rights over the land. The court had observed that only the Palani Temple Devasthanam had the rights over the lands.
The case once again went to the High Court for the third time recently which was heard by Justice RMT Teeka Raman. The petitioners argued that the British did not give the lands to the Palani Dandayuthapaniswamy Temple but to the Thirumoorthy temple located at the base of the Palani hills. The temple side argued that the Palani Dandayuthaswamy and the Thirumoorthy temples are the same and that the same Devasthanam was managing both the temples.
The Madras High Court came to the rescue of the Dandayuthapaniswamy Temple and restored the temple properties by equating the temple deity to a minor child. “The court is the guardian of a minor child both for person and property. Likewise, the court is the guardian of properties of the idol of the temple,” he said.
“The court has to protect the properties of the idol like that of a minor child. According to the Hindu mythology, at Palani Lord Subramaniya Swamy alias Karthick is abode as minor child and hence (and) the court has to protect the property of the idol as that of a minor child,” he said.
The Court also said that the appellants/defendants were enjoying the property for generations by adopting dubious methods and hence should be evicted.
The Court also directed the Commissioner and Secretary of HR&CE department to give instructions to the temple executive officer to take possession of the property within four weeks as per the earlier decree.
(With inputs from Dinamalar)
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