The Madras High Court on Monday reserved its verdict on a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) petition taken up by the court in 2015 for ensuring that the heritage temples spread across the State were conserved well.
Justices R. Mahadevan and P.D. Audikesavalu deferred their verdict after hearing activists Rangarajan Narasimhan, R. Venkataraman and others who complained about mismanagement and interference of politicians.
The senior judge in the Bench made it clear that they would deal with various aspects, including the need to appoint a board of trustees for every temple and keeping the management free of political interference, in their verdict.
Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department had recently filed an affidavit in the court listing out the steps it had taken to document all temples in the State, identify the heritage temples and conserve them.
Stating that 716 temples in the State were in severely dilapidated condition, the department said, it had begun the process of restoration and renovation by indexing the heritage temples as per UNESCO norms.
