The Supreme Court has held that temple land belongs to the deity and that the State, which is legally entrusted with protecting temple properties, cannot itself take ownership of such property through a gift deed, Bar and Bench and Live Law reported. A Bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe set aside the transfer of land belonging to the Nagapalayam Mariamman-Ponnachiamman Temple in Kodumudi village of Tamil Nadu's Erode district to the state government for the construction of a Taluk Office, declaring the gift illegal.

The land — 1 acre and 10 cents — was inam property granted for the support and maintenance of the deity, and the Court held that Section 41 of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959 expressly prohibits its transfer by way of gift, making the gift void from the very beginning and incapable of being validated later. 'The State, as custodian, cannot unilaterally usurp, nor permit any of its officers to usurp, the property of the religious/charitable institutions it is charged to protect,' the Court said.

The dispute began on August 30, 2017, when a temporary trustee, S. Bhoopathy, executed a gift deed transferring the temple land to the Tamil Nadu government. Devotees challenged the transfer, but the Madras High Court dismissed their petition in March 2019. Before the Supreme Court, the Tamil Nadu government conceded that the land was inam property and that Section 41 barred the gift, accepting that it could retain the land only as a lessee.

The Court imposed costs of Rs 1 lakh on the State, payable to the temple within eight weeks. As a Taluk Office has already been built on the land with public funds, the government will continue only as a tenant: the monthly rent was raised from Rs 13,235 to Rs 31,000 with retrospective effect from March 8, 2019, arrears are to be paid within three months, and the rent will be recalibrated every three years.

Sources: Bar and Bench, Live Law, Law Trend.