GI tag for Palani panchamirtham: HC issues notice to HR and CE chief

The direction was made when a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by Radhakrishnan of Chennai came up for hearing before a Division Bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and S S Sundar.

The petitioner claimed that adequate facilities had not been developed in the temple despite an increase in the turnout of devotees. Since the temple land had been encroached upon, devotees were facing hardships. Furthermore, no action had been taken to install CCTV cameras in the temple despite sending petitions to the Chief Minister’s office in 2013.

Hence, the bench should direct the authorities to retrieve the encroached lands, provide adequate facilities to the devotees and install CCTV cameras in the temple, the petitioner prayed.

Making his arguments, the petitioner’s counsel said several acres of the temple land remain encroached upon. Yet no action has been taken to retrieve such lands and to preserve the temple. Furthermore, he contended that while GI status has been awarded to Tirupathi ‘laddu’, no efforts has been taken to get such a status for the Palani temple panchamirtham.

On hearing the plea, the bench also issued a notice to the Joint Commissioner of Palani temple and Dindigul Collector seeking action to be taken on the retrieval of the encroached lands. The case was then adjourned to February 26 for further hearing.