Temple renovation under Madras High Court scanner

Chennai: Coming down heavily on the Tamil Nadu government for not carrying out renovation of ancient temples properly, the Madras high court has suggested it involve all stakeholders to protect and preserve the shrines.

The First bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam before which a batch of petitions with regard to renovation of age-old temples and ‘kumbabhishekam’ (consecration) came up for hearing, said the HR&CE department feels the heritage belongs to it and there will be no interference in it.

“You may be an elected government. Because you are an elected government you are thinking that you are the masters and the lords and somebody should only recommend and suggest from outside and you will not allow them and will not formulate a committee regarding renovation,” the Bench observed.

“I disagree with you. You will not allow anybody inside. All have to suggest from outside, you will only decide. All stake-holders have the right to consult,” he said. The Chief Justice said they had a right to participate.

“There is no question of filing affidavits and rejoinders and nothing will survive and there will be no salvation and we need that some parameters should be laid for renovation or any work that needs to be carried out in the temples. All that we need is that you have a lot of heritage and you have to preserve it. There should be a collective role”.

The Chief Justice blamed the state government for not having a list of temples which were more than 100 years old. “You submit the list only now. Why did not you do it all these days?”.

“We want a person who can execute the work perfectly,” he said. “Even in the renovation of the high court, we have taken the recourse of other agencies to carry out the work in a manner to maintain the original glory,” he said.

The CJ has directed the HR&CE department to discuss with stake holders in the committee represented before the court. The final picture as to how the government proposes to proceed in the matter should be placed before the court.

Amicus curiae P.S. Raman, who filed a report, submitted “During a visit to the 1,000 year-old Srirangam temple, we noticed cement patches on a structure Ramanuja Mandapam. They have drilled the mandapam walls to install electrical fittings. Even the renovation work of high court was not handed over to PWD as they were not experts.”