Supreme Court stays Madras HC order handing Chidambaram Nataraja temple to a five-member board

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a Madras High Court order that had set up a board of retired judges and officials to take over the administration of the Sri Sabanayagar Temple, the Nataraja temple at Chidambaram.

A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul Pancholi passed the interim order on a challenge by the Podhu Dikshitars, the hereditary priests who have long run the temple. They argued that the High Court’s direction interfered with their right under Article 26 of the Constitution, which lets religious denominations manage their own affairs in matters of religion.

What the High Court had ordered

On 30 October, a Division Bench of Justices G Jayachandran and E Manoharan disposed of a batch of writ petitions on the temple’s affairs. Holding that judicial intervention was needed to deal with alleged maladministration, it constituted a five-member Board of Management to run the temple “till the ill is cured”.

The board was to be chaired by retired Madras High Court judge Justice V Bharathidasan, with retired judge Justice R Suresh Kumar as co-chairman and retired IAS officer C Rajendran as a member. The Secretaries of the Podhu Dikshitars and of the state’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department were to sit as ex-officio members.

The High Court had made clear that daily rituals and periodical festivals would stay with the Podhu Dikshitars alone, in keeping with established customs and practice.

What happens now

With Wednesday’s stay, the board cannot take charge for now and the temple’s administration remains as it was before the High Court ruling. The bench has not yet set out a date for the next hearing.