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The Madras High court on Monday directed the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department to disclose whether strong rooms have been constructed in all major temples of the State to keep ancient temple idols safe.

The Division Bench of Justices R. Mahadevan and P.D. Audikesavalu was hearing a suo moto matter dating back to the year 2015 that pertains to safeguard the archeological monuments in the State of Tamil Nadu, especially the temples. 

In 2015, the High court took suo moto cognizance of the issue of heritage protection in Tamil Nadu and decided to see whether the HR & CE Department was going in the right direction. A batch of petitions revolving around the same issue was later on attached to this matter as well.

One of the petitioners, Rangarajan Narasimhan had raised the issue relating to the protection of idols of the temples and properties before the court.

He had alleged that that contrary to the directions issued by the Court in the respective miscellaneous petitions, steps had been taken with regard to demolition, alteration and renovation of the temples in dispute; and further, no steps had been taken as regards the restoration/recovery of idols and temple lands.

In accordance with the same, in June this year, the court had issued an array of directions to the HR&CE Department and State government with an objective to safeguard the cultural value of the heritage and its properties. 

In its detailed order of June 7, 2021, the court had directed that the HR&CE Department must ensure that all the temples have strong rooms, which are efficiently secured with the latest scientific technology and must be under 24x7 video surveillance with alarm. 

The court had said that the stock of idols in the temples must be computerized and the same must be maintained in the manual books and all the existing icon Centres must be brought under 24x7 video surveillance with alarm.

For this, court had directed the District Level Committees to take stock of all the idols in temples which fall within the definition of “Ancient Monument” or “Antique”, prepare a list of such monuments, take photographs and computerize the same.

Court had also asked a central Idol and Antique Wing with ASI experts to be constituted under the model of the CBI to handle the destruction, smuggling, and theft cases.

Passing the abovesaid directions, the court had stressed that “Every idol symbolizes the character of the deity and conveys a message.”

Court had also highlighted that it has been 61 years since the Departement came into existence and yet, the HR&CE department has not even taken inventory of the idols, properties, jewels and other Articles gifted to and owned by the temples.

Court had stated that the department has not computerized the details of idols, jewels and properties of the temples and provided adequate ICON Centres with surveillance to keep safe custody of the valuable idols in the centre and in the temples.

"This has led to the advantage of the culprits, who have aided in smuggling the Idols out of the country," court had pointed out. 

Stressing upon the graveness of the issue, the court had further pointed out that though State police's Idol Wing, CID, was created in the year 1983 to investigate and recover the Idols, but, the steps taken by the department to arrest the theft, remained unsatisfactory. “Now, the wing is also effectively ineffective,” court had said in its order.

In this backdrop only, the court had issued the guidelines in June this year and in furtherance of the same, the court enquired the HR&CE Department on Monday about the construction of the strongrooms. 

Case Title: Suo Motu writ petition