The Madras high court on Wednesday issued a notice to Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR & CE) on a petition, which sought a direction to the authorities to declare Sri Parthasarathy temple in Triplicane as an ancient monument and bring it under the purview of the Ancient Monuments and Archeological Sites and Remains Act and the Tamil Nadu Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites Act.
Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar posted after two weeks further hearing of the petition filed by V.S. Rajkumar and four others, which also sought a direction for preserving the ancient monument and antiquity of the shrine.
Petitioners counsel G. Mohanakrishnan submitted that the temple was under the HR & CE administration since 1968.
The department was not maintaining a register in respect of gosalas, vedapadasalas and agamapadasalas, he informed the bench.
They were also refusing to divulge information relating to the extent and nature of property that were dedicated or earmarked for these institutions.
In June this year, the temple EO had undertaken works to cover the ‘Prakaram’ and ‘Pradakshina’ course (circumambulatory passage) with a permanent shelter obstructing the darshan of the temple ‘gopuram’ and ‘vimanam’, which were a prescribed worship followed by the devotees from time immemorial, Mohanakrishnan added.