After Madras HC order, Puducherry district administration initiates measures to take possession of illegally occupied temple land

Following the order given by the Madras High Court on takeover of the encroached land belonging to the Kamatchiamman temple, the District Collector E. Vallavan has directed the Deputy Collector (North) to initiate immediate measures to take possession of the property.

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Highly placed sources told The Hindu that the District Collector has issued necessary direction to the Deputy Collector (North), two days ago, for immediate takeover of the land as ordered by the High Court.

“The demarcation of the illegally occupied property has already been done under the relevant provisions of Pondicherry Survey and Boundaries Act, 1967. There are two properties under two survey numbers. One measures 00.31.60 hectares and other 00.29.20 hectares owned by the temple on seventh cross at Rainbow Nagar. We will take possession of the property and hand over it to the Department of Hindu Religious Institutions (HRI) and Wakf,” said a Revenue official.

Though the Court has ordered handing over the property to the temple Devasthanam, the District Administration will take over and hand over the property first to HRI, the official said.

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CB-CID intensifies probe into encroachment of 64,000 sq. ft. of temple land

Last week, the High Court in Chennai had directed the government to take possession of the property in entirety and hand over the same to the administration of Sree Kamatchiamman Devasthanam, within four weeks.

The Court had also directed two BJP legislators — A. John Kumar and his son Richards John Kumar and four of their family members — to return the temple property which they claimed to have purchased “innocently.”

Justice S.M. Subramaniam also made it clear that both the legislators should subject themselves to the ongoing probe by the Puducherry CB-CID in the case registered by the agency for illegally occupying the temple property.

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“The temple property being the public property, is to be protected by the Members of the Legislative Assembly and thus the Court is of the considered opinion that in all fairness and 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 MLA under the Constitution and subject themselves for the criminal investigation already under taken by the CB-CID,’’ he said.

The CB-CID has so far arrested 17 persons, including two senior officials in the Puducherry government in connection with the grabbing of around 64,000 sq ft of property owned by the temple.