Subramanian Swamy Writes To Tamil Nadu CM, Warns Of Contempt Action If Hindu Temples Are Not Freed From State Control
Dr. Subramanian Swamy has written a letter to MK Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu calling upon him to free Hindu Temples and Religious Institutions from the control of the State Government.
In the letter dated December 1, 2022, Dr. Swamy has warned that if no action is taken by the Chief Minister in this regard, he will initiate legal proceedings against the state in the nature of contempt of the Supreme Court.
Dr. Swamy has mentioned in the letter that as per the declaration of law by the Supreme Court in the case of Subramanian Swamy v. State of Tamil Nadu, (2014) 5 SCC 75, no religious functions of a temple were to be taken over by any government and that if there were any financial mismanagement in a temple, then the financial and connected secular activities of the temple could be taken over to remedy the financial mismanagement, but only for a limited period.
The Supreme Court in its 2014 judgement of the Bench of Justice Dr. B.S. Chauhan and Justice S.A. Bobde had held that "Even if the management of a temple is taken over to remedy the evil, the management must be handed over to the person concerned immediately after the evil stands remedied. Continuation thereafter would tantamount to usurpation of their proprietary rights or violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution in favour of the persons deprived."
The Supreme Court had emphasised that "Super-session of rights of administration cannot be of a permanent enduring nature. Its life has to be reasonably fixed so as to be co-terminus with the removal of the consequences of maladministration. The reason is that the objective to take over the management and administration is not the removal and replacement of the existing administration but to rectify and stump out the consequences of maladministration. Power to regulate does not mean power to supersede the administration for indefinite period."
Click here to read/download the Letter
