A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday directed the State Government to file an affidavit in response to a writ petition seeking a directive to the Government to pay the arrears of annuity due to the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, Thiruvananthapuram.
The petition was filed by Shilpa Nair, president, People for Dharma. According to her, the government had taken over the vast stretch of land in possession of the temple following the implementation of the Kerala Land Reforms Act with an assurance of payment of perpetual annuity.
An annuity of ₹58,500 had been fixed in 1971 in lieu of the compensation for the loss of rent on such land. In fact, the annuity had never been revised since then. Now with the COVID-19 crisis, the temple had not been in a position to meet even the daily expenses and had to impose cut on the salaries of employees. Besides, donations from the public had drastically fallen. The temple was in dire straits.
A representation had been given to the Chief Minister demanding revision of the annual rent on the properties of the temple. It sought to fix the amount at ₹25,000 per acre per annum and revision upwards by 25% every four years.
The representation also urged the Government to explore the option of giving back the non-agricultural land. But, there had been no response from the Government.
The functioning of the temple had been severely impaired, infringing the fundamental right of the followers of the temple, the petitioner said. The petition also sought a directive to the Government to revise the annuity being paid to the temple.
The court also allowed a petition seeking to implead the executive officer of the temple in the petition.
