No new colleges to be set up using temple funds, existing ones must have course on Hinduism: Madras High Court

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Four colleges set up from these funds, for which admissions are completed, will have to start courses on the Hindu religion within a month.

The Madras High Court recently barred the setting up of colleges out of surplus funds from temples in terms of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959, without the leave of the Court (TR Ramesh v. State Of Tamil Nadu And Ors).

The order passed by now-transferred Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice PD Audikesavalu further directed that four colleges set up from these funds, for which admissions are completed, will have to start courses on the Hindu religion within a month.

"It will be a condition precedent to the four colleges opening that a stream of religious instructions in Hindu religion be introduced. If such a course is not introduced within a month of the college starting, the further functioning of the college cannot continue. It must be appreciated that however pious the intention may be to use perceived surplus funds for the purpose of education, these funds are out of offerings for a particular cause and, ordinarily, the cause must not be forgotten and the same must be espoused with a part of the funds, even though the larger sphere of education may also be addressed," the order stated.

The Court was hearing a petition filed by the president of the ‘Temple Worshippers Society’ challenging a government order dated October 6, 2021 that paved the way for setting up of colleges using funds from temples.