The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department on Monday told the Madras High Court that it has sent a proposal to the State government to constitute a committee under the chairmanship of a retired High Court judge to review the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act of 1959 and suggest amendments.
The submission was made in a review application filed jointly by the Chief Secretary and the HR&CE Department to modify 32 out of the 75 directions issued by the court in June this year on preserving architectural heritage. The petition took objection to a direction to review the HR&CE Act once in three years by constituting a high-level committee.Stating that the power to enact or amend a law vests with the legislature, the petition stated that the court could always exercise its power to review any of the provisions of the Act. However, the department itself had now sent a proposal to the government to constitute a committee headed by a retired High Court judge to review the law. Therefore, the direction could be modified to state that a committee should be constituted to review the law whenever necessary and not specifically after every three years, the review petitioners said.
‘Modify directions’
The government also urged the court to modify the directions to constitute district-level and State-level expert committees to accord sanction for repairs and renovation of temples and archaeological sites. It reiterated that only the authorities prescribed under the statutory rules under the HR&CE Act could perform such function and not the non-statutory committees.
Further, stating the HR&CE Department was in the process of finalising a conservation manual which prescribes conservation methodology as per international standards, the government said the existence of any committee could only be a stop-gap arrangement until the repair and renovation of temples could be undertaken as per the norms prescribed in the manual.
Stating that the State archaeology department performs similar functions as the ASI, the government said it could be allowed to consult the State department instead of ASI while renovating ancient temples.
It said over 5,000 ancient temples in the State would be graded based on their age, history and architectural features.
