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Madras high court stays temple notification by Centre

The Madras high court on Wednesday stayed implementation of a notification by the Centre proposing to declare the Arunachaleswarar temple in Tiruvannamalai as a national heritage.

Issuing the direction on a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Commissioner, M A Gowrishankar, challenging the October 21 notification by the Archaeological Survey of India, Justice R Balasubramaniam issued notice to the secretary of department of culture and the ASI.

On November 11, the state government had filed a petition against the notification, declaring the temple as a national monument.

In the writ petition, the commissioner had pointed out that an appeal against a scheme drawn up by the high court for management of the temple was pending in the Supreme Court.

He said the government had declared Tiruvannamalai as a heritage town in 1993 and introduced guidelines, which led to a controversy over maintenance of a girivalam [park] around the temple and filing of several writ petitions against the government.

He contended that one of the petitioners had sought declaration of the temple as a monument and the Centre, in its counter affidavit, had taken the position that it could not be so. The notification was contrary to its earlier stand and a 'colourable' exercise of power.

It also did not contain any material to enable persons concerned to file objections. It would take away the powers of trustees and other authorities, affecting day-to-day affairs.

Seeking to quash the notification, the petitioner had also sought a stay of its operation till disposal of his petition or maintenance of status quo.

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