1 week ago
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The Tamil Nadu government, connected Friday (May 29, 2026), gave a sovereign warrant for the information of temple funds deposited successful Tamil Nadu Power Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TNPFIC), a State owned non-banking concern corp (NBFC) that funds Tamil Nadu Power Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO).
In a memo filed earlier Justices G.R. Swaminathan and V. Lakshminarayanan, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) section caput J. Kumaragurubaran said, “the Government of Tamil Nadu has deemed it due to widen its assurance by mode of a warrant connected the information of the deposits made by the respective temples with TNPFIC.”
It was besides guaranteed that the State authorities shall unafraid owed repayment of the deposits made by temples arsenic and erstwhile they get matured. The interim warrant was fixed astatine the lawsuit of the tribunal pending last adjudication of a nationalist involvement litigation petition filed by temple activistic T.R. Ramesh who expressed apprehensions implicit the information of the deposits.
When elder counsel S. Ravi, assisted by B. Jagannath, highlighted the usage of the word ‘temples’ unsocial successful the memo and feared that the authorities should not extremity up excluding the funds of Mutts and specified different institutions, the judges recorded the submission of Advocate General Vijay Narayan that the connection ‘temples’ recovered successful the memo whitethorn beryllium work arsenic ‘religious institutions.’
Further, taking enactment that advocator Chevanan Mohan, representing the Reserve Bank of India, excessively had entered quality successful the PIL petition, the judges directed the High Court Registry to database the main lawsuit for proceeding aft six weeks. In his memo, Mr. Kumaragurubaran had said, the temple funds were being desposited successful TNPFIC and Tamil Nadu Transport Development Finance Corporation (TNTDFC) for respective decades together.
However, a Government Order was issued lone connected February 17, 2026 for amending the Religious Institutions (Custody, Investments and Lending oregon Borrowing of Moneys) Rules, 1963 and thereby see TNPFIC successful the database of institutions successful which temple funds could beryllium deposited and hence the contiguous PIL petition had been filed, the Secretary said and assured the tribunal that the funds successful some TNPFIC and TNTDFC were highly safe.
“There has not been a azygous lawsuit of default by either of the aforesaid corporations successful respect of outgo of involvement oregon immoderate different quality of defaults thereby establishing a accordant and reliable way record... The authorities has examined the fiscal statements/balance sheets of TNPFIC and it could beryllium ascertained that the aforesaid corp has consistently recorded profits,” the memo read.
It went connected to state: “India Ratings has besides rated the fixed deposits of TNPFIC arsenic ‘A’ thereby marking them arsenic stable. The borrower namely TANGEDCO has besides demonstrated a accordant and proven way grounds of timely servicing of its fiscal obligations with nary recorded instances of default nor has its accounts ever been classified arsenic Non Performing Assets.”
In his affidavit, the PIL petitioner Mr. Ramesh had claimed that TNPFIC had secured a ‘BBB minus’ standing which was the lowest that a NBFC could person to judge nationalist deposits. He had besides said, that TNPFIC functions wholly arsenic a dedicated backing limb of the State powerfulness assemblage and its arms specified arsenic Tangedco which person an accumulated nonaccomplishment of implicit ₹1.62 lakh crore.
