The Madras High Court has ruled that funds donated to temples by devotees are the exclusive property of the presiding deity and cannot be diverted for any non-religious or commercial purposes.
A bench comprising Justices S.M. Subramaniam and G. Arul Murugan quashed five Tamil Nadu government orders issued between 2023 and 2025 that permitted the use of temple funds for building marriage halls. The judges stressed that these funds, given out of spiritual devotion or gifted to temples, must only be spent on temple maintenance, festivals, charitable activities, or other explicitly religious purposes under the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Act, 1959.
āTemple funds cannot be considered public or government money,ā the court said, warning that expanding their use would lead to misuse and infringe upon devoteesā religious rights.
The verdict came in response to petitions filed by activist Rama Ravikumar, who argued that renting marriage halls cannot be classified as a religious activity. The state government contended that Hindu marriages are religious in nature, but the court observed that marriages also carry contractual elements under law and do not fall within the scope of religious expenditure under the HR&CE Act.
The ruling reinforces the courtās stance that temple resources must remain devoted to their original religious intent and not be treated as revenue-generating assets.