The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Commissioner has agreed, in principle, to give on lease, around six acres of land belonging to the Kothanda Ramaswamy Temple at Y. Othakadai in Madurai, for the expansion activities of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.
Appearing before Justices G. Jayachandran and K.K. Ramakrishnan on Thursday, Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram, said, the HR&CE Commissioner had written to the High Court’s Registrar General (in-charge) M. Jothiraman on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, expressing the department’s consent to lease out the temple land.
The A-G said, the temple owned 6.51 acres of land exactly opposite to the main entrance of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court and another three acres near Y. Othakadai police station. The R-G had sent a proposal to the State government seeking assignment of the 6.51 acres alone. The HR&CE Commissioner considered the proposal and replied that six acres could be leased out for the purposes of constructing residential quarters for the court staff, a community hall, an auditorium and so on and the remaining of 51 cents would be required for administrative purposes of the HR&CE department.
Expressing satisfaction at the swift action taken by the Department at the court’s instance, the Division Bench directed the R-G to constitute a team of court officers, in consultation with the High Court’s Building Committee comprising sitting judges, to conduct a field inspection and earmark the six acres. After this inspection, the R-G was directed to respond to the HR&CE Commissioner. The judges also requested the A-G to coordinate with the government and ensure that the lease amount gets paid to the department at the earliest and also to take steps for acquisition of the land at the earliest.
Stating that the proposal to take the land on lease was mooted only as an immediate measure, the Bench made it clear that the property should ultimately be acquired for the expansion activities of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.
The judges also wanted the temple to use the lease amount wisely. They said, now that the 6.51 acres of land, that had been lying barren for decades together, was about to fetch a handsome income for the temple, the money could be invested to construct some buildings on the other three acres of land and the consequent income could be used for the development of the temple.
The Bench directed the HR&CE counsel to come up with a comprehensive plan for the wise use of the money by the next hearing on August 21.
