A church-operated school that illegally occupied temple land in Tamil Nadu for over five decades has finally agreed to vacate after repeated court orders were defied and senior IAS officers were summoned for contempt. The institution, St. Joseph Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Koothapakkam village, Cuddalore district, run by Roman Catholic nuns, remained on 3.40 acres of land belonging to the ancient Sri Devanathaswamy Temple despite multiple court rulings directing its removal.
The matter reached a turning point on July 10 when five senior IAS officers, including Additional Chief Secretary P. Amudha, were compelled to appear in person before the first bench of the Madras High Court, led by Chief Justice K.R. Shriram and Justice Sunder Mohan, to explain their failure to enforce the court’s 2019 and 2024 orders.
The temple, located about 5 km west of Cuddalore town on the way to Panruti, is the Deiva Nayagan Divya Desam in Thiru Vahindrapuram, dedicated to Bhagwan Vishnu. Constructed in the Dravidian architectural style, it is revered in the Divya Prabandham, the early Tamil canon of the Azhwar saints (6th–9th century AD). It is one of the 108 Divya Desams dedicated to Vishnu, worshipped here as Devanathaswamy, with his consort Lakshmi as Hemabhujavalli.
Despite clear rulings, including a 2019 order by Justice M. Dhandapani and further directions in 2024 by Chief Justice V. Gangapurwala, the Tamil Nadu government failed to act against the encroachment. Only after the filing of a contempt petition by S. Vinoth Raghavendran, State Secretary of the BJP’s Spiritual and Temple Development Wing, did the matter see progress.
In 2024, the High Court had granted six months for the HR & CE Department to relocate the school to an alternative site. Officials failed to comply. The contempt petition forced the issue into the spotlight again, leading to the unprecedented court appearance of top bureaucrats including:
P. Amudha, Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue Department
S. Madumathi, Secretary, Department for the Welfare of the Differently Abled
B. Chandra Mohan, Principal Secretary, School Education Department
P.N. Sridhar, Commissioner, Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) Department
Sibi Adithya Senthil Kumar, Cuddalore District Collector
All officers filed affidavits tendering unconditional apologies. They were let off with a warning after the court accepted their promise to execute the relocation immediately, as per earlier orders.
According to Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran, 4.73 acres of land in Bhuvanagiri taluk had been allotted to the school. However, the school’s representative, Father Xavier Arul Raj, opposed the allotment, claiming the site was a sand dune lacking road connectivity and situated 32 km away from the current location. He requested land within a 5 km radius, even if smaller in size.
The bench instructed the school to make a fresh representation to the revenue authorities and ordered the government to dispose of the request within a reasonable time. The appearance of the IAS officers was thereafter dispensed with.
Justice Dhandapani’s 2019 judgment had clearly ruled that the land must be returned to the Devanathaswamy Temple. He noted that the school, run by the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, operates numerous institutions across Tamil Nadu, including 135 schools and multiple colleges, yet chose to continue its illegal occupation of sacred temple land for over 50 years.
The judge had ordered that, once alternate land was allotted, the original land must be returned to the temple within three months. The petitioner was also granted liberty to apply for alternate land, to be approved within ten weeks.
In yet another hearing dated 18 April 2024, the court expressed shock over government inaction. “The judgment was delivered almost five years ago… and the government is still sitting over the proposal,” said Chief Justice V. Gangapurwala and Justice J. Sathya Narayana Prasad. The court ordered that the land issue be resolved within six months and that encroachments on other temple lands be surveyed and dealt with under Section 78 of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959.
Nachiappan, President of Tamil Nadu BJP’s Spiritual and Temple Development Wing, told media, “This was a legal battle fought for over 50 years. The school was built illegally on temple land, and even a statue of Mary was installed there. Repeated requests were ignored. The temple authorities and our legal team pursued the matter relentlessly. After we secured a favourable court order in 2023, officials still refused to act. Only after we filed a contempt case and forced them to appear in court did things begin to move.”
