Temple devotees association leader T.R. Ramesh has said that the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department’s day-to-day administration remains unchanged even after a change in government. He noted that devotees had expected reforms after the new administration took charge and a new minister assumed responsibility for the department.
Ramesh acknowledged two recent steps he described as positive. On June 19, the department cancelled administrative approvals granted earlier for 46 commercial projects proposed on temple lands using temple funds—29 marriage halls worth Rs 115.77 crore and 17 commercial complexes worth Rs 130.1 crore, totalling about Rs 246 crore. He also cited a July announcement by the minister, after detecting money being collected for “quick darshan” at Tiruchendur, inviting complaints of HR&CE-related irregularities via [email protected].
However, he argued that these political-level decisions have not translated into systemic administrative change. According to him, key demands such as greater transparency, disposal of pending Right to Information applications, modern accounting practices, clearing long-pending audit objections, recovering temple lands, ensuring temple funds are used for temples, avoiding departmental interference in worship matters, and rolling back certain legal amendments introduced earlier have not seen action.
Ramesh pointed to his writ petition (No. 35452/2023) seeking publication of annual audit reports of HR&CE-controlled temples—from Fasli 1419 onwards—in downloadable PDF format on the department’s website. He said the Madras High Court, in an interim order dated August 21, 2025, recorded that audits had not been conducted in 9,525 temples and noted that despite instructions to scan and upload audit reports through the ITMS audit module by January 31, 2025, no reports had been uploaded. He said that even after a year since the court’s order and months after the new government took office, the audit reports are still not available online.
