Chennai: The Tamil Nadu State Information Commission has ordered the hindu religious and charitable endowments (HR&CE) department to proactively disclose details of movable and immovable properties of all temples under its control and display the same at the dept offices, respective temples, either through posters or on the notice boards.The information should contain land details of all categories including agri, vacant land parcels, commercial and residential buildings, endowments executed for the respective temples, lessee details, lease period along with pending dues from them. The dept should also declare movable assets including bank deposits, bank and PAN details, gold and other metals in temple’s possession and donor details.Information commissioner V P R Ilamparithi has given the dept 90 days to comply with the order. Apart from temple history and festivals, HR&CE dept has also been directed to proactively publish account book and audit details of all temples, GOs, and circulars and other information required under Section 4 of RTI Act on its website, the order dated Sept 1 said.The directions came while disposing of a second appeal filed by M Ravishankar of Mandavelipakkam. While he sought details of properties that belong to Maruntheeswarar temple in Tiruvanmiyur under RTI Act in 2025. He subsequently approached the information commission since he wasn’t satisfied with the reply he received from the appellate authority.Information commissioner Ilamparithi noted that at least 2,000 RTI appeals are pending before the commission, out of which at least 90% of them were related to assets of various Hindu temples in the State. Hailing the HR&CE dept for setting a precedence to RTI Act way back in 1997 through a circular issued by the then commissioner Meikandadevan, which made indelible display of all temple endowments mandatory, the commissioner also pointed out a 2021 circular issued by HR&CE dept which reinforced publishing all temple property details on the official website.“In the era of artificial intelligence, it is sad that people have to wait for 30 days to get mandatory information under RTI Act,” the commissioner said. Such petitions represent the demands of thousands of devotees visiting temples every day, he said.
