State governments cannot lawfully accept temple properties gifted by temporary trustees, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday, emphasizing that public authorities acting as custodians are prohibited from seizing assets belonging to religious and charitable bodies.
A division bench comprising Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe nullified a transaction in which temple land in Tamil Nadu had been gifted to the state administration for the construction of a government facility. The court imposed a penalty of Rs 1,00,000 on the state government, directing that the sum be remitted to the temple within eight weeks.
Ruling On Custodial Duties And Deity Ownership
The court stressed that administrators and officials charged with safeguarding charitable and religious institutions cannot appropriate their holdings. The bench observed that properties endowed to religious foundations through the contributions of devotees, monarchs, and ordinary citizens across generations belong neither to donors, clergy, administrators, nor the government. Instead, legal ownership vests entirely in the presiding deity, with custodians holding the assets solely in trust for the deity and the broader community of worshippers.
Background Of The Erode Property Dispute
The ruling arose from a legal dispute concerning the Nagapalayam Mariamman-Ponnachiamman Temple, located in Erode district, Tamil Nadu. The property in question comprises one acre and ten cents located across Survey Numbers 36/4, 36/5, and 41/2 in Kodumudi village, which was managed under the temple trust.
On August 30, 2017, a local tehsildar issued a formal certificate indicating that temporary trustee S Bhoopathy had relinquished the temple plot to the administration. On the same date, a gift deed transferred the property to the Tamil Nadu government through the district collector and tehsildar, who received the parcel to build a taluk administrative office.
Litigation And Statutory Violations
The transfer faced a legal challenge brought by M Periyasamy and three other petitioners. They asserted that transferring trust assets through a gift deed violated Section 34 of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959, rendering the transaction unlawful.
The Supreme Court determined that the gift deed in favor of the Tamil Nadu government stood void under Section 41(1) of the 1959 legislation, ruling that the registration carried no legal authority. The bench noted that despite its statutory duty to protect the land, the state administration maintained its defense of the acquisition through proceedings before the High Court and Supreme Court, relenting only when the Chief Secretary of Endowments was summoned to submit an affidavit.
Lease Regularisation And Upward Rent Revision
While invalidating the ownership transfer, the Supreme Court ordered that the existing governmental lease on the site remain operative or be renewed if its term had lapsed.
The court mandated that monthly rent payable to the temple trust be raised to Rs 31,000, calculated retroactively from March 8, 2019, the date the land was turned over for building works. Under Section 34-A of the 1959 Act, lease rental must undergo revision every three years without dropping below the Rs 31,000 benchmark. The bench added that all remaining contractual terms, including lease duration and renewal conditions, must be established by the temple trust with the institution’s welfare serving as the overriding priority.
