PIL plea filed against deposit of temple funds in State-owned non banking finance corporations

A case has been filed in the Madras High Court challenging the previous Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government’s decision to deposit hundreds of crores of rupees of surplus temple funds in State-owned non banking finance corporations such as Tamil Nadu Power Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TNPFC) and Tamil Nadu Transport Development Finance Corporation (TNTDFC).

A summer vacation Bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and V. Lakshminarayanan on Wednesday admitted the public interest litigation petition filed by temple activist T.R. Ramesh of Indic Collective Trust and directed the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department to file its counter affidavit by May 27. The judges decided to take up the case for final hearing during the next week itself.

Senior counsel S. Ravi, assisted by the counsel on record B. Jagannath, urged the Bench to quash a Government Order issued on February 17, 2026 for amending the Religious Institutions (Custody, Investments and Lending or Borrowing of Moneys) Rules, 1963. The counsel said, the amendment paves the way for the temple funds to be deposited in highly unsafe non banking finance corporations that were in the doldrums.

The court was told that TNPFC and TNTDFC had been collecting public deposits and funding capital expenditure and working capital needs of Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) and the State transport corporations respectively. The counsel said, TNPFC had been given a BBB minus rating which was the lowest rating that a non banking finance corporation must have to accept public deposits.

In his affidavit, the PIL petitioner stated that “TNPFC may have a perceived advantage of being 100% owned by the Government of Tamil Nadu and that is perhaps the only reason that prevents its rating from going below BBB (-). Any rating below BBB(-) would at once incapacitate TNPFC or any other non banking finance corporation from accepting or renewing deposits.”

It was also brought to the notice of the court that TNPFC functions entirely as a dedicated funding arm of the State power sector and its arms such as Tangedco which have an accumulated loss of over ₹1.62 lakh crore. Highlighting that the condition of TNTDFC was no different, the litigant said, the surplus temple funds could not be allowed to be used for funding State-run institutions.

Observing that the petitioner had raised an interesting question of law, the judges insisted that the counter affidavit to the PIL petition must be filed within a week so that the case could be taken up for final hearing by next week.