'God will forgive us': High Court approves acquisition of temple land for metro

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has allowed Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) to go ahead with its plan to acquire land from two Hindu temples for the construction of a metro station. It also ruled that religious institutions have no special right to opt out of acquiring land for public purposes. A bench of Justice N. Anand Venkatesh observed that God will forgive if the development is beneficial to the devotees. “For the development of the National Highway, if the religious institutions are affected, God will forgive us,” Justice Venkatesh said.

The Madras High Court had given its permission to acquire temple land citing an order issued by the Kerala High Court in a similar case. A portion of the land of the Rathina Vinayagar Temple and Durgai Amman Temple in Chennai will be acquired for the metro line.

A decision to acquire the land of the insurance company was taken after considering the complaint filed by the devotees against the acquisition of the temple land. United India Insurance Company approached the court against it. The court opined that it was not right to demolish a building constructed at a cost of Rs 250 crore. The court said that demolishing the building that was built after getting a no-objection certificate from the CMRL itself is “gross violation of the principles of natural justice.” The court pointed out that when land is acquired, the temple does not have to be demolished and the facilities will only be slightly reduced.