The legal counsel for Pothu Dikshitar’s committee of Shree Sabhanayakar (Natarajar) temple in Chidambaram on Wednesday raised the issue with Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister (HR&CE) PK Sekarbabu over their comments on the temple and said that Dikshitar was the administrator of the temple. , and this was justified by the decisions.
In a press statement, Dikshitar’s legal counsel G. Chandrashekhar said that the ownership of the temple was upheld by the decisions mentioned in the South Gazetteer and the South Arcot Manual 1878 by JH Garstim, the then Collector of South Arcot district. But the HR and CE departments and ministers were refusing to accept the truth and were closing their eyes to “impenetrable” documents and decisions to which the department is also a party, Mr Chandrasekhar said.
“The decisions are binding on them. Over the past few months, there have been several exchanges of notices and replies have been made known in the public domain. Besides, unnecessary arrests, human rights violations and violation of child rights are also made public on the pretext of investigation in child marriage prevention offences,” he said.
Mr Chandrashekhar alleged that the Tamil Nadu government was clearly trying to take over the administration by pressurizing it through illegal and unfair investigations. He said the Dikshits have already made it clear that illegal orders violating constitutional rights guaranteed under Article 26 will be subject to legal action including contempt of court orders. But the government is not bothered about the orders of the court, he said.