Chennai:
The Madras High Court has granted Tamil Nadu revenue authorities four months time to record details of land belonging to temples in the state on compact discs and hand them over to the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department.
Passing the order on a petition, a bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam said considering the nature of the work to be done, it was allowing a further period of four months for the authorities concerned.
The petitioner, the Sri Vaishnava Dharma Samrakshana Society, represented by its president, Swamy Govinda Ramanujadasa, sought a direction to the state government to implement the November 23, 2009 GO as it would enable the authorities to defend related cases pending before courts.
Nearly 4.78 lakh acres of lands belongs to the temples in the State, the society said. As per the GO the Commissioner of Land Survey and Settlement was required to send the CDs containing all the details of land belonging to temples.
In a counter affidavit, the Commissioner stated that in keeping with the directions in the GO all Collectors had been requested to send detailed reports, in respect of the expenditure to be incurred for the exercise and other requirements.
Complying with the directions, details of property in respect of the districts of Dharmapuri, Dindigul, Tirupur, Virudhunagar, Tiruchirappalli, Sivaganga, Tiruvarur and Tirunelveli were said to be ready, it said.
The matter will come up after four months for filing of status report, by the government.