The Madras High Court on Wednesday, April 27, set aside an order issued in 2013 by the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department to take over the administration of the Ayodhya Mandapam at West Mambalam in Chennai. The order was issued by the then AIADMK government after complaints by an ex-president of Ayodhya Mandapam, alleging misappropriation of funds by the society running it – the Sri Ram Samaj. The HR&CE department then issued orders to appoint a “fit person” to manage the administration of the mandapam. The government had also said that it received multiple complaints of financial mismanagement, tax evasion and other irregularities against the Sri Ram Samaj. The order was then challenged in court.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy on Wednesday ordered that the administration of the mandapam be handed back to the Sri Ram Samaj. However, it also granted liberty to the HR&CE department to conduct a fresh inquiry into the allegations of irregularities.
While the department had contended in court that it was a temple, the Sri Ram Samaj, in its affidavit, said that it was a place for religious discourse and pointed out that there were pictures of deities but no idols at the mandapam. The HR&CE Department had, in an earlier case, informed the court that regular poojas were conducted at the Ayodhya Mandapam and that there was 'hundi' placed for collecting public offerings and hence is fit to be managed by it.
The issue had become a bone of contention between the ruling DMK and the BJP. The Madras High Court had on March 31, dismissed a plea challenging an order of the HR&CE that appointed a person to take over administration of the mandapam. When officials came to take over the mandapam, members of the BJP staged a protest there on April 11.