The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department has succeeded in saving valuable temple property in Nungambakkam in Chennai, from being alienated to Super Good Films Private Limited, a popular movie production house led by its managing director R.B. Choudhary.
A Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and K. Rajasekar dismissed a writ appeal filed jointly by the production house as well as its supposed vendor M.E. Siddiqa and confirmed an order passed by Justice M. Dhandapani on June 6, 2022 against the sale of the temple property.
Special Government Pleader (HR&CE) N.R.R. Arun Natarajan brought it to the notice of the court that the Agastheeswarar Prasanna Venkatesa Perumal Devasthanam owned large extents of lands in Nungambakkam, endowed to it by devotees several years ago.
One such piece of land measuring one ground and 379 sq. ft., located opposite the Nungambakkam railway station, had been rented out to an individual, Nagoorkani who died on October 14, 1986 leaving behind huge rental arrears. Immediately, thereafter, a rental lease termination notice was issued. However, when the deceased tenant’s sons N. Meeran and N. Sherif claimed tenancy over the property but they too defaulted the payment of rent of ₹15 per month, the Devasthanam filed a civil suit before the XIII Assistant City Civil Court in Chennai claiming recovery of possession. The suit was filed in 1987.
The two individuals, in turn, filed an interlocutory application seeking protection under Section 9 of the Tamil Nadu City Tenant Protection Act, 1921 and the civil court passed an order on March 29, 1990 determining the value of the property of 2,779 sq.ft., of property at Nungambakkam to be ₹20,842.
The court directed the Devasthanam to execute a sale deed in favour of the siblings and permitted them to pay the value of the property in 36 monthly instalments. Pursuant to the order, then trustee R. Valliammal executed a sale deed in favour of the two individuals on October 11, 1990.
The siblings then sold the property to Ms. Siddiqa for a handsome amount of consideration in 1992 but when she wanted to sell it to Super Good Films in 2022, the registration department refused to register the document due to an objection raised by the HR&CE department and hence the present writ proceedings.
The Bench led by Justice Subramaniam agreed with Mr. Natarajan that the City Tenant Protection Act would have no application at all to a property governed by the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959 which was a special enactment aimed at protecting temple lands.
Therefore, the sale deed executed in 1990 on the basis of an interlocutory order of the civil court would be untenable and a nullity in the eyes of the law, the Bench held. It directed the HR&CE department to resume the property within three months and utilise it for the administration of the temple.
Though it was argued by the appellants that Nagoor Meeran had taken the property on rent in 1948, much before the enactment of the T.N. HR&CE Act, 1959; the judges said, even the erstwhile Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Act, 1926 had provisions pari materia to the 1959 Act.
“Therefore, the entire sale transaction between the private parties regarding the alienation of the temple property is null and void and unenforceable,” the Bench ruled.
