Will you still want to visit a temple after realising it was built illegally on government land? A. Velumurugan, 47, who filed a PIL petition against the illegal construction of Sri Shiva Subramanya temple at Bhadragiri in Tarikere of Chikkamagaluru district, will have to file an affidavit answering this question posed to him by the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Ashok S. Kinagi posed the question as the petitioner claimed that he was a devotee of the temple, while complaining about its illegal construction.
Observing orally that “no God would say that he should be worshipped in an illegally built temple”, the Bench asked the petitioner why he was not making a plea for demolition of the temple and merely asking that it be taken over by the government.
As the petitioner claimed that around ₹65 lakh income generated by the temple annually was being allegedly misappropriated by one Chandra G. and his son Karthik after the death of the main priest, the Bench asked whether the petitioner wanted to grind axe against them or was he interested in protecting public interest.
As the tahsildar, in his report to the Assistant Commissioner of Tarikere, stated that the temple was built on government and forest land, the Bench directed the government to initiate action, including demolition of illegal constructions, after examining the matter based on the apex court’s directions on illegal religious structures on public lands/places.
The Bench also asked the government whether the temple was covered under the apex court’s order of 2009, which gave an option to the government to regularise/remove/relocate illegal religious structures built on public properties prior to September 29, 2009, and to not allow any such structure built illegally on public properties after that date.
