High Court likely to resume physical hearing from Sept

A division bench comprising Justice MM Sundresh and Justice R Hemalatha gave the indication while hearing a batch of pleas pertaining to misuse of temple funds. The bench led by Justice Sundresh, who had been eliciting views since Wednesday from advocates about resuming physical hearing, held that the batch of pleas needed a thorough hearing so that a comprehensive order could be passed. Following this, the bench posted the plea for physical hearing to September 4.

The bench assured petitioner Rangarajan Narasimhan from Tiruchy, the party-in-person who moved a public interest litigation in this regard, that he would be provided e-pass for his travel for after he raised apprehensions whether he would be able to reach the court from Tiruchy.

Pointing out to the allegations of misuse of funds and temple properties running to over Rs 50,000 crore as just the tip of an iceberg, the bench asked the petitioners to come out with concrete suggestions to remedy the situation.

Urging the petitioners to go beyond their individual cases and instead help the court come out with a common order to protect temples, Justice Sundresh said it was clear prima facie that all was not well with the functioning of the temples. A comprehensive plan to remedy the situation ought to be evolved so as to limit the damages in future. Though it was not bound to be 100 per cent perfect, a start had to be made, the judge added.