Madras High Court Issues Notice To 5 IAS Officers And Others In Contempt Plea Regarding Encroachment Of Temple Land

The bench of Chief Justice KR Shriram and Justice Sunder Mohan issued notices to Ms P. Amudha IAS (Secretary to Government – Department of Revenue and Disaster Management), Ms S. Madhumathi IAS (Secretary to Government – Department of School Education), Dr. B. Chandramohan IAS (Secretary to Government – Department of Tourism, Culture and HR & CE Department), Mr PN Sridhar IAS (Commissioner, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Administration Department), Ms. Sibi Adithiya Senthilkumar IAS (District Collector, Cuddalore) and two joint commissioners of HR & CE Department.

The notices were issued in a contempt plea filed by S. Vinoth Ragavendran against the non-compliance of an earlier order of the court in April 2024 by which the court had directed the State to find alternate land for a school that was allegedly functioning on a temple land.

Ragavendran had submitted that the land in which the school was functioning was a temple land in which St. Joseph’s Matriculation Higher Secondary School was functioning. He had alleged that the encroachment was not removed.

When the writ petition was taken up, the Special Government Pleader had informed the court that as per an order passed in an earlier writ petition filed by the school, the court had directed the State to provide alternative land to the school and if any land was not feasible for allotment, to allot any other land which was situated near the town or village with easy access to the main road or abutting the road.

The State Government Pleader had also informed the court that the proposal for allotment had been pending with the government.

Noting that the order for alternate land was made five years before and the proposal was still pending, the court had directed the state to take steps to implement the order of the court and identify alternate land within a period of 6 months.

However, since no action had been taken on this order also, Raghavendran has now approached the court, by way of a contempt petition seeking action against the officers concerned.

Case Title: S Vinoth Raghavendran v. Ms. P. Amudha and Others

Case No: Cont P 519 of 2025