Vakil Help Desk News: the Supreme Court has declared void a 2017 gift of temple inam land to the Tamil Nadu Government, holding that the State is only a custodian of temple property, and ordered it to pay market-linked rent and ₹1 lakh in costs.
Vakil Help Desk News, Litigation & Courts. The State cannot take temple land as a gift, the Supreme Court has held in K. Ramalingam & Ors. v. Government of Tamil Nadu & Ors. (2026 INSC 1144), decided on 16 October 2026. Under the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959, the Government is the custodian and regulator of temple property, not its owner.
The judgment was delivered by a bench of Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe.
The case
About one acre of inam land belonging to the Nagapalayam Mariamman–Ponnachiamman Temple in Kodumudi village, Erode district, was gifted to the State Government in August 2017 by a temporary trustee. The Tehsildar accepted the gift, and the land was used for a Taluk Office. The Madras High Court dismissed the hereditary trustee's challenge in March 2019, and devotees then approached the Supreme Court.
What the Supreme Court held
- Inam property is excluded from Section 34 of the Act and is governed by Section 41, which makes gifts of inam property void. Unlike some other transactions, a gift cannot be validated by government sanction.
- The gift was therefore void from the start, and registering the gift deed could not cure the defect.
- Gifting away temple land for nothing in return can never be an act of ordinary prudence expected of a trustee.
- The State is a custodian of temple property and cannot appropriate the very property it is meant to protect. The Court criticised the State for defending the gift for years.
Directions
- The High Court's order was set aside and the land declared inam property vested in the Temple; the gift deed is void and its registration has no legal effect.
- The Government may continue to occupy the land as a lessee, paying enhanced rent of ₹31,000 a month from 8 March 2019, revised every three years, with arrears payable within three months.
- The State must pay ₹1,00,000 in costs within eight weeks and strictly follow the Act's provisions on alienation of temple property.
What this means for you
Before you buy, lease or accept any land in Tamil Nadu, check whether it is temple or inam land. Transfers of temple property need the statutory sanction, and a gift of inam land is void altogether — registration does not cure it, and you could lose the land and your money. A proper title search by a lawyer before paying is the safest course.