Madras HC pulls up official over ‘cavalier’ affidavit

CHENNAI: Expressing shock over a poorly drafted counter affidavit bereft of necessary information on particulars of lease and encroachment of temple land, the Madras High Court on Wednesday pulled up a senior officer of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department based in Thanjavur.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee, heading a division bench consisting of Justice PD Audikesavalu, said, “The cavalier manner in which the counter-affidavit has been prepared, cries out for immediate action against the joint commissioner, including for contempt.”

The CJ was evidently annoyed over the contents of the affidavit. He said what is more alarming is the revelation that the temple administration has identified 206.93 acre of land belonging to the temple and uploading process in the department website is going on. “The next sentence is more shocking. Major part of the land was leased out to tenants and some encroachers are in possession,” he noted, and added that there was no indication as to who could have leased out the land to any tenant and how many encroachers are in possession,

The judge also stated that ‘arrogance’ of the Joint Commissioner ‘knows no bounds’ and he suggested in the affidavit that procedure contemplated in the HR&CE Act, 1959 is ‘cumbersome’ and the time-limit may not be fixed. He asked the Joint Commissioner of HR&CE based in Thanjavur, Thennarasu, to file a reply to show cause why action should not be taken for disrespecting the court.

“G Thennarasu should file and affidavit to show-cause why immediate appropriate action should not be taken against such person, inter alia, for the disrespect shown to the court in the manner in which the affidavit has been drafted and for dereliction of duty in not paying attention to any detail or seeking to furnish the same to court,” the CJ ordered.

He directed the affidavit be filed when the matter appears next, on October 20. The matter pertains to a petition filed by ‘Elephant’ G Rajendran over the missing of a copper plate of land details and the encroachment of land belonging to Bhaktavatsala Perumal Temple at Tirukannamangai in Tiruvarur district. The court was informed that the copper plate was recovered.