Supreme Court voids gift of temple land to Tamil Nadu, says the state is custodian and not owner

17 October 2026

A Supreme Court bench of Justice P S Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe has held that a gift of temple land to the State of Tamil Nadu was void ab initio, in K Ramalingam and Others v. Government of Tamil Nadu and Others, reported as 2026 INSC 1144 and 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 1067. Justice Aradhe wrote the judgment. A temporary trustee of the Nagapalayam Mariamman-Ponnachiamman Temple in Kodumudi village, Erode district had gifted 1 acre 10 cents of temple land to the State on 30 August 2017 for a Taluk Office, and the Madras High Court dismissed a challenge in March 2019 on the view that Section 34 did not expressly prohibit gifts. The Supreme Court held that Section 41(1) of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959 applied because the land was inam property granted for the temple's support, and Section 41 bars gifts of such land; a later sanction could not validate it. It held that the State is a custodian and regulator of temple property and not its owner, and that a public-purpose motive does not change that. A gift is not prudent management under Sections 27 and 28 since the institution receives no consideration, and the deed could not be validly registered under Section 22-A of the Registration Act, 1908 as applicable in Tamil Nadu. The High Court judgment was set aside and the deed declared null and void, but the lease was not cancelled because the Taluk Office had already been built with public funds. Rent was enhanced to Rs 31,000 per month retrospective from 8 March 2019, with arrears payable in three months, revision every three years and no fall below that figure. The State must pay Rs 1 lakh in costs to the temple within eight weeks.