The Supreme Court on Friday drew a firm line on the use of temple funds, saying that money belonging to a deity cannot be tapped to support struggling cooperative banks.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi delivered the remarks while hearing appeals filed by cooperative banks against a Kerala High Court order directing them to return deposits belonging to the Thirunelly Temple Devaswom.
“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 which can give maximum interest,” the CJI asked, questioning the banks’ resistance to shifting the deposits.
Reiterating that temple wealth is not an instrument for bank recovery, the CJI said, “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.”
The petitions were filed by Mananthawady Co-operative Urban Society Ltd and Thirunelly Service Cooperative Bank Ltd.
They argued that the high court’s directive to immediately close the Devaswom’s fixed deposits was putting them in a difficult position. The bench did not agree.
“If you are unable to attract the customers and deposits, that is your problem,” it said, adding that banks must build trust instead of relying on institutional funds to stay afloat.
The court refused to entertain the appeals but allowed the banks to approach the high court only for an extension of time to comply with its earlier order.
The dispute began when several cooperative banks declined repeated requests from the Thirunelly Devaswom to release matured fixed deposits.
This led the Devaswom to move the Kerala High Court, which directed Thirunelly Service Cooperative Bank Ltd, Susheela Gopalan Smaraka Vanitha Cooperative Society Ltd, Mananthawady Cooperative Rural Society Ltd, Mananthawady Co-operative Urban Society Ltd, and Wayanad Temple Employees Cooperative Society Ltd to refund the entire amount within two months.