Chennai: The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) Department not to take any decision till the end of January next year, with regard to melting of the jewels received by the temples in the state.
The first bench of Acting Chief Justice M N Bhandari and Justice P D Audikesavulu gave a direction to this effect when the PILs from the Indic Collective Trust here and four other individuals came up for further hearing, today.
The PILs challenged the notifications dated September 9 and 22 of the HR&CE department, which talked about the monetisation of the gold jewellery received by the temples as donations from the devotees.
A three-member committee, appointed by the State government to monitor the task of taking inventory of the gold items donated to the temples, could go ahead with the work. But no decision with regard to melting them should be taken for six weeks, the bench said and posted the matter for further hearing in the third week of January.