Consider exempting temples with less than ₹5 lakh annual income from contributions to Endowment department: Andhra Pradesh High Court

The Andhra Pradesh High Court last week asked the State government to consider exempting temples with an annual income less than ₹5 lakh from making mandatory contributions to the State's Endowment Department [Allaparthi Venkata Chalapathi Rao v State of Andhra Pradesh]..Justice R Raghunandan Rao was of the opinion that the exemption previously granted to temples with annual income of ₹2 lakh was clearly inadequate since it would leave only very little amount with the temple to meet its expenses. “There is every need to reduce this burden on temples having an income of less than ₹5 lakh,” the order stated.It, therefore, asked the State to reconsider the current exemption limit within a period of four months. .The petitioner in the case was a founder family member of the Sri Alaparthamma Temple which was registered with the Andhra Pradesh Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, 1987..It was his submission that there were various liabilities cast on the temple such as making payments to the endowments department which effectively took away the income of the temples.The petitioner placed reliance on the judgments of the Supreme Court in AS Narayana Deekshithulu v State of AP and Sri Divi Kodandarama Sarma and others v State of Andhra Pradesh to contend that temples with income less than ₹5 lakh were exempt from the regulations under the Andhra Pradesh Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, 1987..The State, on the other hand, argued that the figure of ₹5 lakh in the top court’s judgment was a typographical error and in fact it is, temples with incomes of less than ₹50,000 which were granted the exemption.Further, it was stated that the 2nd proviso to Section 29(1) of the Act clearly envisaged departmental control over temples with income of less than ₹2 lakh. So there could not be any omnibus exemption to all temples with income less than ₹5 lakhs, it was submitted. .The single-judge examined the judgment in Sri Divi Kodandarama Sarma by which the top court permitted certain recommendations by the State government to be brought in force. These recommendations essentially said that the State was not interested in taking up management and regulation of the affairs of temples with low income and would prefer that they look after themselves. Further, it provided that the State would only take up management of those temples having a substantial income.On examining the apex court judgment, the High Court refused to accept the State's argument there was a typographical error in the judgment, noting that any such finding would amount to a modification of the order of the Supreme Court..The Court also discussed the statistics provided by the petitioner that reflected that there were 1,440 temples with income between ₹2 lakh and ₹5 lakh which were paying between ₹37,000 and ₹92,500 every year to the endowments department as mandatory contributions."By way of an example, if we were to take the case of a temple having an annual income of ₹2,00,001, the temple would have to pay ₹37,000 to the endowments department. This would leave an amount of ₹1, 63,000 in the hands of the temple to defray it‟s entire annual expenditure. The minimum staff needed for a temple would be an Archaka, a watchman and a sweeper/cleaning person. Apart from this the expenditure for Dhupa, Deepa Naivedyam would also have to be met. In today‟s world, such an amount is clearly inadequate," the Court said. Thus, the burden on temples having an income of less than ₹5 lakh should be reduced, the Court opined. .Therefore, it asked the State to reconsider its decision and increase the exemption limit to ₹5 lakh."This writ petition is disposed of with a direction to the State government to consider the grant of exemption to temples having an annual income of less than ₹5 lakh from the provisions of the Act including the requirement to pay the mandatory contributions mentioned above, in the light of the directions of the Hon‟ble Supreme court in Sri Divi Kodandarama Sarma and others vs. State of Andhra Pradesh and others," the judgment said. The exercise of reviewing the limit should be carried out within four months, the Court added. .Advocate V Venu Gopala Rao appeared for the petitioner. The respondents were represented by the government pleader and Advocate K Madhava Reddy..[Read Judgment]