HR&CE Chief appears before court challenging penalty imposed

CHENNAI: The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department commissioner J Kumaragurubharan on Friday approached the Madras High Court challenging the order of a single judge imposing a penalty of Rs 2 lakh on him and two of his subordinates.

Representing the officers, Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran made a mention before the division bench of Justice S Vaidyanathan and Justice AD Jagadish Chandria for setting aside the order of a single judge.

Accepting the mention of AAG, the bench observed that they would hear the appeal matter on Monday.

Justice Anita Sumanth had recently imposed Rs 1 lakh fine on the HR&CE commissioner and Rs 50,000 each on an assistant commissioner and a joint commissioner.

The single judge imposed the costs on disposing of a contempt petition filed by a Chennai resident B Sugumar for not implementing the June 21, 2021 order of the High Court to take action against the rent defaulters of Arulmigu Sokkavel Subramania Temple and Arulmigu Angalaparameswari Kasiviswanathar Temple in Choolai, Chennai.

When the respondent officers informed the single judge that the delay was due to the misplacement of files, the judge rejected their contention and imposed the penalty.