The Madras High Court has directed the formation of a committee headed by the Chennai District Collector to identify and recover land belonging to the Agatheeswarar Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal Temple in Nungambakkam, Chennai, as reported in Dinamalar.
The direction came while hearing a petition filed by Sriram, who alleged that large portions of the temple’s land had been illegally sold.
According to the petition, the temple, which is under the control of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department, owns 377 grounds of land. Of this, 123 grounds had allegedly been sold to 126 individuals under the City Tenants Protection Act. Another 34 grounds were reportedly sold directly by the HR&CE Department to several individuals.
The petitioner contended that these transactions were illegal and sought the recovery of the land belonging to the temple.
The case came up for further hearing before a Division Bench comprising Justices Jayachandran and Manoharan. Additional Advocate General P.V. Balasubramanian appeared for the HR&CE Department, while advocate P.T. Perumal represented the petitioner.
After hearing the matter, the judges ordered the constitution of a committee headed by the Chennai District Collector. The committee will include the Tahsildar, the Assistant Director of the Land Survey Department and the concerned officials of the Greater Chennai Corporation.
The committee has been directed to identify the temple land and submit its report to the court within six weeks.
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