Madras High Court Directs BJP MLAs Accused Of Grabbing Temple Land To Return Possession, Subject Themselves To CID Probe

The Madras High Court has directed two BJP MLAs from Puducherry and their family members to return vacant possession of a temple land allegedly grabbed by them illegally, to Sri Kamatchi Amman Devasthanam.Justice SM Subramaniam also asked the father-son duo, A John Kumar and Vivilian Richards John Kumar, to subject themselves to probe being conducted by the Crime-Branch of Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) to initiate action under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. It ordered, “The Superintendent of Police, CBCID (SIT), Pondicherry is directed to conduct an impartial and uninfluenced investigation with reference to the allegations of criminality etc., as stated above and proceed with the criminal prosecution by following the procedures as contemplated…The Superintendent of Police, CBCID (SIT), Pondicherry has been directed to initiate action under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act,” the court ordered. This was after Court formed a prima facie view that the preliminary investigation conducted by the agency reveals involvement of criminality. “The people's representatives involving in such nature of criminal allegations, cannot be tolerated...they are expected to be the truthful and trustworthy Public Servants...This Court has carefully gone through two investigation reports filed by the Superintendent of Police, CBCID (SIT), Pondicherry. The facts of investigations are also narrated and the criminality involved are also stated in the said investigation report. Certain shocking revelations are found in respect of the documents executed and the manner in which the Government Officials acted unbecoming of Public Servants are visibly established,” the court said. The temple had submitted that the properties were bequeathed to it through a will but in due course, the property were grabbed by creating certain fraudulent documents since the property remained a vacant land. It was submitted that several documents were executed by the Village Administrative Officers and certain proceedings of the Government Officials etc revealed large-scale collusion and fraudulent execution of documents.The MLAs on the other claimed they were bona fide purchasers of the property and had no connection with the allegations of criminality in the matter of transfer. Looking into the documents submitted by the temple, the court noted that there were visible discrepancies which would be sufficient to arrive at a conclusion that there was criminality involved. Relying on Article 51A of the Constitution, the court emphasized that every citizen is duty-bound to safeguard public property. Thus, the court opined that the sitting MLAs should handover the property to the temple. “The temple property being the public property, is to be protected by the Members of the Legislative Assembly and thus this Court is of the considered opinion that in all fairness and with commitments, the two sitting MLAs should hand over the vacant possession of the subject land to the temple immediately to establish their fairness and bona fide as the elected Members of the Legislative Assembly under the Constitution of India and subjected themselves for criminal investigation already undertaken by the Government of Pondicherry i.e., the Superintendent of Police, CBCID (SIT), Pondicherry,” the court said. Counsel for the Petitioner: Mr.Sunny Sheen Akkara for Ms.V.Srimathi, Mr.D.Ravichander Counsel for the Respondent: Mr.S.Raveekumar, Government Pleader (Puducherry), Mr.K.Sasindran, Mr.B.Arvind Srevatsa, Mr.S.Xavier Felix, Mr.B.Balavijayan, Mr.G.Karthikeyan, Senior Counsel for Ms.K.R.Vinodhinee, Mr.B.Saravanakumar Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 290 Case Title: Sri Kamatchi Amman Devasthanam v Department of Hindu Religious Institutions and Wakf Case No: WP Nos.22035 of 2021 and 25472 of 2023Click here to read/download the judgment

Madras High Court Directs BJP MLAs Accused Of Grabbing Temple Land To Return Possession, Subject Themselves To CID Probe

Upasana Sajeev

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