Madras High Court directs two BJP MLAs in Puducherry to return temple property to prove their bona fide

Madras HC directs BJP MLAs to return temple property to prove innocence in fraud, corruption allegations. Judge notes people's reps must uphold constitutional principles & protect public property. CB-CID to probe & Govt to retrieve temple lands. Judge to review Nov 6.

The Madras High Court has directed two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs in Puducherry and four of their family members to forthwith return a temple property to prove their bona fide in the wake of their claim of having been innocent purchasers who had no role to play in the allegations of fraud, impersonation, misrepresentation, fabrication of documents, corruption and collusion with government officials to grab the land.

Justice S.M. Subramaniam also made it clear that the father-son duo A. John Kumar and Richards John Kumar, representing Kamaraj Nagar and Nellithope constituencies respectively, should subject themselves to the probe being conducted into the issue by the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) on court orders. He said the allegation of legislators having grabbed temple property could not be taken lightly.

“People’s representatives are expected to be truthful and trustworthy public servants and strive hard for the upliftment of the people residing within their constituency and to uphold the constitutional principles of law. They are the parens patriae of the people of their constituency... The temple property, being a public property, is to be protected by the Members of the Legislative Assembly,” the judge wrote in his interim order on two writ petitions.

He recorded the submission of the MLAs’ counsel that the duo were innocent purchasers of the land and that they were willing to return the land if it was proved that it actually belonged to Sri Kamatchi Amman Devasthanam in Puducherry. Further, on finding that the CB-CID had already conducted a preliminary inquiry and discovered prima facie material to suspect foul play, the judge directed the Superintendent of Police to get to the bottom of the matter.

He also directed the Government of Puducherry to retrieve all the lands belonging to the Devasthanam and hand over the possession to the latter. He pointed out that the Devasthanam, represented by its secretary Subramaniam, as well as a devotee named V. Velmurugan had approached the court with the present writ petitions alleging that the temple properties had been grabbed through active collusion between politicians and government officials.

The petitioners had stated that one Muthuswamy Achary had bequeathed two immovable properties to the temple by executing a will on March 6, 1935. The intention of the donor was to use the income from the properties to feed the poor devotees. However, since the land remained vacant for all these years, it was grabbed through creation of fabricated documents and due to collusion with politicians and bureaucrats, they alleged.