Chennai, June 28 (SocialNews.XYZ) Madras High Court on Wednesday hauled up the Tamil Nadu government over non-payment of the rent arrears to Ardhanareeswarar Temple in Veeracholapuram for constructing the Kallakurichi collectorate and other buildings on temple property.
The court was responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the temple, S. Daiveegan. The petitioner had complained that the government had not paid rent arrears to the tune of Rs 57.60 lakh as ordered by the court and had not renovated the temple which was in a dilapidated condition.
The court had earlier passed an order on March 30, 2023 to pay an advance deposit and arrears of monthly rent at the rate of Rs 1.6 lakh from July 2020.
The first bench of the Madras High Court comprising Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu questioned the Advocate General for the delay in depositing the money in the temple’s account even after the court's directive.
The Advocate General requested the division bench for two months to deposit the money but the court refused to admit the plea and directed the state government to make the payment in the next four weeks.
The counsel for the petitioner, N.G.R Prasad told the court that activist Rangarajan Narasimhan had in 2020 filed a writ petition against using temple land for the construction of the collectorate, office of the Superintendent of Police, other government offices and district courts for the Kallkurichi district which was carved out from Villupuram district.
The writ petition by Rangarajan Narasimhan was argued for three years and on March 30, 2020, the Madras High Court bench of the then Acting Chief Justice T. Raja and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy permitted the government to continue with the construction. However, the court directed the government to take on lease an area of 34.817 acres at a rate of 1.6 lakh as monthly rent. The court had also directed the government to pay the arrears since 2020.
Source: IANS
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