SC draws ‘Lakshman Rekha’ on temple funds: ‘Can’t use deity’s money to save struggling banks’

Drawing ‘Lakshman Rekha’ on the use of temple funds, the Supreme Court on Friday said that struggling banks can’t use the money belonging to a deity to stay afloat.

“Temple money belongs to the deity and hence, the money has to be ‘saved, protected and utilised only for the interests of the temple’ and it cannot become a source of income or survival for a cooperative bank,” a bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said while hearing appeals filed by cooperative banks against a Kerala High Court order directing them to return deposits belonging to Thirunelly Temple Devaswom.

The bench – which also included Justice Joymalya Bagchi — questioned the banks’ resistance to shifting the deposits and sought to draw ‘Lakshman Rekha’ on use of temple funds, reiterating that temple wealth is not an instrument for bank recovery.

“You want to use the temple money to save the bank? What is wrong with directing that the temple money, instead of being in a cooperative bank, which is breathing with great difficulty, should go to a healthy nationalised bank that can give maximum interest,” CJI Kant said.

Noting that banks must build trust instead of relying on institutional (temple) funds to stay afloat, the top court refused to entertain the appeals filed by Mananthavady Co-operative Urban Society Ltd and Thirunelly Service Cooperative Bank Ltd even as it allowed them to move the state high court extension of time to comply with the order.

The petitioners contended that the high court’s order to immediately close Devaswom’s fixed deposits put them in a difficult position.

However, the top court said, “If you are unable to attract customers and deposits, that’s your problem.”

The dispute began when several cooperative banks declined repeated requests from Thirunelly Devaswom to release matured fixed deposits.

Devaswom moved the Kerala High Court after several cooperative banks turned down repeated requests to release matured fixed deposits. The high court directed Thirunelly Service Cooperative Bank Ltd, Susheela Gopalan Smaraka Vanitha Cooperative Society Ltd, Mananthavady Cooperative Rural Society Ltd, Mananthavady Co-operative Urban Society Ltd, and Wayanad Temple Employees Cooperative Society Ltd to refund the entire amount within two months. It was this high court order that the cooperative banks challenged in the top court.