Chennai, June 24 The Madras High Court on Tuesday issued notices to five senior IAS officers and a Joint Commissioner of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department in a contempt of court case linked to alleged disobedience of a 2024 order related to temple land encroachment in Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore district.
A division bench of Chief Justice K.R. Shriram and Justice Sunder Mohan observed that a prima facie case of contempt had been established and directed that notices be served on the officials concerned.
The matter has been posted for the next hearing on July 10.
The contempt petition was filed by S. Vinoth Raghavendran, the Tamil Nadu state Secretary of the BJP’s spiritual and temple development wing, alleging that the officials failed to comply with the directives issued by the High Court on April 18, 2024, in a writ petition concerning the alleged encroachment of land owned by the historic Devanathaswamy Temple in Cuddalore.
In his earlier petition, Raghavendran had claimed that St. Joseph’s Matriculation Higher Secondary School was unlawfully occupying land belonging to the temple. He cited two specific survey numbers, asserting they were registered under the temple’s name.
During the 2024 hearing, the HR&CE Department had informed the court that the school had filed its own writ petition in 2009, and in 2019, a single judge had directed the Tamil Nadu government to provide alternative land measuring at least 4.5 acres, either in Bhuvanagiri village or another accessible location.
Despite the court’s 2019 order, the HR&CE counsel admitted that the proposal to allocate land to the school remained pending with the state government for over five years.
Expressing concern over the delay, the division bench in April 2024 ordered the government to identify and allot the alternative land within six months. The court also addressed wider concerns over encroachment on temple properties and recorded the department’s assurance that a comprehensive survey would be conducted within three months, and legal action would be taken wherever encroachments were found.
Based on this assurance, the writ petition was disposed of.
However, claiming that the authorities had failed to act on both the land allotment and the promised survey, the BJP functionary approached the High Court once again with a contempt petition.
In response, the court issued notices to the officials who held key positions during the relevant period - P. Amudha (former Revenue Secretary), S. Madhumathi (former School Education Secretary), B. Chandramohan (former HR&CE Secretary), P.N. Sridhar (former HR&CE Commissioner), Sibi Adhithya Senthilkumar (former Cuddalore District Collector), and a Joint Commissioner of the HR&CE Department, whose name was not disclosed.
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