Block fake temple sites, says HC

MADURAI: The Madurai bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the HR&CE Department to shut down all illegal and unauthorised or fake websites opened in the name of the temples and deities across the state.

Petitioners P Markandan and AR Subramanian sought intervention of authorities to take necessary steps to secure and protect the interest of Thirukadaiyur Amirthakadeshwarar Temple and its properties.

The petitioners also sought action against bogus illegal websites functional in the name of temples and deities under the control of HR&CE Department and mutts and take necessary criminal action against the admins of such websites and also to recover money collected by them from the devotees illegally.

A division bench of Justice R Mahadevan and Justice J Sathya Narayana Prasad in the order directed the government to provide the Department of Telecommunication and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology with a list of official website of the temples with domain names and to inform them to give appropriate instructions to the internet service providers to continuously block all other illegal websites with fake domain names, IP addresses and URLs created by third parties in the names of the temples.

A separate dedicated contact phone number of an officer must be given on the websites of the temples so as to enable the devotees to inform about the existence of bogus websites, if any, when they come across or get duped by such websites. If any such complaint is received, the department should swiftly act upon and take necessary action.

Further, the Court directed the HR&CE officials and Aadheenam authorities to file a status report within three months.