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K. Ramalingam and Others v. Government of Tamil Nadu Represented by its Secretary and Others

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 1144Decided 16 Oct 2026
Civil Appeal arising out of SLP (C) Nos. 20051-20052 of 2019
Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha · Justice Alok Aradhe

Background

A temple's temporary trustee gifted temple-trust land to the Tamil Nadu government in 2017 to build a Taluk Office. The hereditary trustee and devotees challenged this as illegal under temple-endowment law; the High Court initially dismissed the challenge, but the State itself later conceded the land was dedicated temple property and the gift was prohibited.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held the governing law permits the government to later regularize a sale, exchange, mortgage or lease of such temple land, but pointedly excludes gifts from ever being validated, so the 2017 Gift Deed was void from the outset. Since a government building had already been constructed on the land, the Court did not order it vacated, but instead let the government continue as a lessee at a substantially raised rent, with back-rent payment and costs imposed on the state.

Lesson Learnt

A government body entrusted with overseeing temple or charitable trust property acts only as a guardian, never an owner: it cannot accept gifts of such property for itself, no matter how worthy the stated purpose, and any such gift is void from the start.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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