Supreme Court stays order to form management board for Chidambaram temple
A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul Pancholi has halted a Madras High Court decision regarding the temple's administration.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a Madras High Court order that had established a Board of Management to oversee the ancient Chidambaram Sabanayagar Temple in Tamil Nadu. A bench comprising Justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul Pancholi issued notices to the Tamil Nadu government regarding the appeal filed by the temple's Dikshitars.
The Madras High Court had previously ruled on October 30 that the Podhu Dikshidar, a hereditary community of priests, had mismanaged the temple. The High Court had ordered the formation of a board including retired judges V. Bharathidasan and R.
Suresh Kumar, along with retired IAS officer C. Rajendran, to address issues such as unauthorised constructions and the conversion of temple premises into a food court.
According to reports from The Hindu and ThePrint, the High Court sought to implement a transparent administration to retrieve temple assets and rectify maladministration. While the High Court maintained that daily rituals remain the prerogative of the Podhu Dikshitars, it had required regular submission of accounts to the new board.
The dispute involves challenges to the temple's administrative autonomy and access to the Kanakasabha area. Senior advocates for the Tamil Nadu government argued that the hereditary priests had failed to share full income accounts for 12 years and caused damage to the property.
During the proceedings, Justice Kumar questioned whether the state's parens patriae jurisdiction, which acts as a guardian, applies only to public temples or to other places of worship as well. The Supreme Court has frozen the implementation of the previous order while the matter is considered.