The first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Pushpa Satyanarayana, gave the order when a PIL filed by one Rangarajan Narasimhan, seeking stay of demolition of the temples proposed by Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department came up before it.
It took a serious view of demolition of a more than a 400-year-old-temple and, after hearing Narasimhan and Additional Advocate General P H Arvind Pandian, said "we have thus no hesitation in stating that the works of demolition of any of the temples be stayed till we examine the whole aspect."
The reasons cited varied from traffic hindrance and recommendations of a witchcraft specialist from Kerala, to not conforming to 'Dravidian style' and to put an end to inauspicious incidents in a village, he said.
Stating that Balalayam (rituals before construction) was held long back in the three temples, the petitioner alleged that renovation or construction was yet to be carried out for reasons best known to the HR&CE Department.
Contending that all the three demolished temples had rich archaeological importance and more than 100-year-old rock pillars were brought down, he sought a direction to remove the conservationist from the post of consultant/archaelogist/ conservationist and an interim injunction, restraining HR&CE from continuing any renovation work of temples in Tamil Nadu.
The bench, which stayed the demolition, said though AAG had submitted that it was not necessary that HR&CE department acts on the basis of the recommendation of the consultant, at the same time, nobody tested such a report.
"Instead of that, the temples have been demolished which means that in a sense the recommendation of the consultant has been acted upon".
The bench, after issuing notice to the HR&CE department, directed AAG to file a counter in four weeks.