Chennai:Madras high court on Thursday censured Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department for permitting 18 encroachers — of the land belonging to Sri Bashyakara Adi Chenna Kesava Perumal Temple, West Mambalam — to continue stating that they had agreed to pay rental arrears.Refusing to accept the department’s argument, a division bench of Justice G Jayachandran and Justice E Manoharan directed officials to evict all encroachers on or before Sept 7.The department originally informed the court that the land was required for establishing Annadhana Koodam and providing two-wheeler parking for devotees. Later, however, it somersaulted and informed the court that it had been decided to allow the encroachers to continue and proposed shifting the Annadhana Koodam inside the temple premises.On Thursday, when the plea came up for hearing, counsel for the petitioner, S Karthikei Balan, referred to a newspaper report wherein it is stated that the HR&CE minister has instructed officials not to show any haste in evicting the encroachers from the temple land.Recording the submission, the bench said: “Normally, courts do not go by the newspaper reports and simply ignore them… However, in the present case, we are unable to avoid recording the newspaper report, which tallies with the volte-face shown by the executive officer in his present status report dated Sept 2.” Moreover, the proposed shifting of Annadhana Koodam inside the temple premises, which is an ancient heritage site more than 1,000 years old, is per se contrary to the directions issued by this court in another connected writ petition, the bench said. It was held that no construction inside an ancient temple can be carried out without clearance from the heritage committee consisting of experts from the archaeology department, the court added.
