HC stays demolition of temples in Tamil Nadu

The Madras High Court today stayed demolition work of temples in Tamil Nadu, saying it was passing the order as it would like to examine all aspects.
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 petitioner alleged that three of four ancient temples of Namakkal, Tiruppur and Erode Districts were demolished on a report filed by HR&CE appointed conservationist K T Narasimhan.
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.

When the matter was taken up today, the petitioner submitted that HR& CE had demolished the temples on the basis of the report filed by Narasimhan.
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.