"State Can't Monitor Any Religion's Place Of Worship": Plea In Madras HC Challenges 'TN Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments Act'

Sparsh Upadhyay

17 Aug 2021 4:34 PM GMT

  • State Cant Monitor Any Religions Place Of Worship: Plea In Madras HC Challenges TN Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments Act

    A plea has been moved before the Madras High Court challenging the vires of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959. The Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P. D. Audikesavalu today admitted the plea and issued a notice to the State of Tamil Nadu, asking it to file a rejoinder in the matter. Importantly, the challenge in the plea is not to...

    A plea has been moved before the Madras High Court challenging the vires of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959.

    The Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P. D. Audikesavalu today admitted the plea and issued a notice to the State of Tamil Nadu, asking it to file a rejoinder in the matter.

    Importantly, the challenge in the plea is not to any particular provision of the Act, but to the entirety of the Act, and during the course of the hearing, the Counsel for the petitioner, R.Gururaj, too, said that the complete act was being challenged.

    When CJ Banerjee asked the Counsel as to whether he was challenging the whole act, he said that there is no Act for any other religious denomination, it is only for Hindus. The Act, according to me, is against the Constitution, not (only) against the Fundamental Rights.

    He further added thus:

    "The Government can't run the temples, that is why I am challenging the act."

    The petitioners, in their plea, have also filed extracts from several Supreme Court judgments dating back to 1974.

    Therefore, the Court directed the copies of the petition and all papers be forwarded to the office of the Advocate-General for the State to file its counter-affidavit within four weeks.

    The matter has been listed for 6 weeks thereafter on October 5, 2021.

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