"God has never sought a place, much less an encroached area," the Madras High Court has observed and ordered "removal" of a temple built after encroaching public land.
A division bench comprising Justices M Venugopal and S Vaidyanathan made the observation while directing removal of Kottai Palayathamman temple located on a piece of government land opposite the state secretariat here.
The order was passed recently on a plea by the priest of the temple, seeking a direction to forbid the authorities from demolishing the temple.
In its order, the court said, "A mere glance of the photographs produced by the petitioner would make it very clear that the temple has been constructed on government land."
The petitioner has also admitted that the temple land had been classified as government revenue land, the judges said, adding instead of vacating the place, the petitioner had approached the court and obtained an interim order.
"Any person, including a priest, having encroached a government land under the guise that a place of worship is situated there, cannot be allowed to stay in the said place. God has never sought a place, much less an encroached area," it said.
If a person intends to build a temple for a deity, he should ensure that such construction is an authorised one, the judges said.
Any person, who has devotion to the deity, will not raise an unauthorised construction, leaving it open to the authorities to raze it to the ground, they added.
"People are constructing temples on the roadside, of course, mostly by encroaching public land, only to get fringe benefits," the bench observed.
The judges then directed removal of the temple within 15 days of the receipt of the order.
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