Supreme Court bars government from taking temple land, raises lease rent
The Supreme Court ruled that temple property belongs to the deity and cannot be seized by the government, even for public purposes, and increased the rent for a Tamil Nadu temple plot used by a taluk office.
In a judgment delivered on October 16, the Supreme Court affirmed that temple assets are held in trust for the deity and cannot be appropriated by the government, regardless of any claimed public purpose. Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe emphasized that the state’s role is custodial, not ownership, and that any transfer of inam property is void ab initio under the 1959 Act. The dispute centered on 1 acre and 10 cents of land belonging to the Nagapalayam Mariamman-Ponnachiamman Temple in Kodumudi, Erode district, which had been transferred to the state in 2017 for a taluk office.
While the court rejected the government's claim to the land, it allowed the existing lease to continue, raising the monthly rent to ₹31,000 and ordering payment of back rent and ₹1 lakh in costs to the temple. The ruling is part of a larger batch of petitions questioning the constitutional validity of temple-administration laws in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry, with hearings slated for next week. The bench also instructed one outlet Religious and Charitable Endowments Department to strictly follow statutory procedures in future transactions involving religious properties.
Why it matters
The decision limits government power over religious endowments, protecting temple assets from unilateral state appropriation.
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