Priests of the Sri Nataraja temple in Chidambaram have refused to produce any records or account details for the second day to the team of officials who went there to conduct an inspection, on Wednesday, June 8. The dikshitars did not allow the five-member team to meet the Pothu Dikshitars’ secretary and advocate, following which the Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department (HR&CE) said that the government might consider taking legal action.
According to reports, the HR&CE department had sent notices and reminders regarding an inspection by a team of officials and asked the temple dikshitars to submit details. This included revenue, expenditure, audit reports, properties, lands, belonging to the temple, and the department sought reports from as far back as 2014. However, as a committee reached the temple on Tuesday, the dikshitars refused to allow the team to carry out the inspection. The team went again on Wednesday, only to be refused access again. However, the team took photos and videos of the temple premises before leaving.
“The dikshithars didn’t cooperate with us for the inspection. Despite us urging them to provide records, they did not give anything. They also claimed that the committee was not legal. We will submit a report to the HR&CE commissioner, and will be taking further legal action to review the documents of the temple,” HR&CE District Revenue Officer R Sugumar told the Times of India.
On Tuesday, Minister PK Sekar Babu issued a statement saying that the state government had no intention of taking over the temple “but will not hesitate to enquire into complaints from devotees”.
In response to the dikshitars' lawyer’s claim that the "inspection is without any legal jurisdiction", Sekar Babu pointed out that the shrine was a public temple, citing a High Court order. “That being the case, when some complaints were received by HR&CE, according to relevant legal sections inspection can be done based on those plaints. This has been communicated to the temple administrators,” he added.
He also said that this should not be seen as an anti-dikshitar move, but was only to enquire about complaints. “We will not violate any laws. HR&CE will certainly undertake the inspection," he had said.