Opinion

All mosques and churches built on land without deeds in Tamil Nadu to be justified

Political battle intensifies over minority institutions and land ownership

November 3, 2026

Tamil Nadu land regularisation move sparks row over mosques and churches

The move by the Joseph Vijay-led government in Tamil Nadu to gift away acres of land that have no ownership details to Christians and Muslims has upset the Hindu community in the state. “Thousands of churches, mosques and dargahs stand to benefit from this decision of the government, and this is a violation of all Constitutional propriety,” said Narayanan Thirupathy, chief spokesperson of the Tamil Nadu BJP.

He said the action of the government is an open and deliberate surrender of government land to encroachers under the pretext of minority appeasement. “There are many mosques, dargahs and churches which have been functioning without any land pattas (titles) for more than 50 years. The Tamil Nadu Land Encroachment Act empowers the government to evict all such entities. But what the Joseph Vijay-led government is doing is to gift such lands and make them the formal owners of the land. Duration of illegal ownership does not lead to a right over the land,” said Narayanan Thirupathy.

The illegal issuance of title deeds of land is in violation of verdicts by the Supreme Court of India and High Courts in various cases that stipulate that “unauthorised religious structures on public land — be it a temple, church or mosque — must be removed.” “Article 25 of the Constitution does not protect encroachment,” said Thirupathy.

He also said that the Places of Worship Act does not legitimise post-1947 occupation of government land. “The Government of Tamil Nadu is rewarding the illegality that courts have condemned, and this is a selective communal policy,” he said.

In a recent verdict in a petition associated with the entry of non-Hindus in temples, a division Bench of the Madras High Court had taken strong objection to the entry of a Muslim MLA into Meenakshi Temple in Madurai. Badruddin Mustafa entered the temple’s tower claiming that, as the local MLA, he has every right to enter anywhere in the temples. Mustafa had declared that Sanatan Dharma should be annihilated to preserve the safety of the minority communities in India.

Since the TVK is a Christian party with the patronage of the Church, Chief Minister Joseph Vijay is on a mission to destroy temples and alienate thousands of hectares of temple lands in the state. The Temple Worshippers Society, headed by former banker T R Ramesh, is waging a series of court battles to retrieve at least a portion of the land usurped by the DMK government.

“Land encroachment is being given legality by the government, and this is Land Jihad. Since day one, the Joseph Vijay government has been on a mission to rejuvenate mosques and churches built on encroached land, much to the detriment of Hindu society,” said Gauthaman Ramakrishnan, chief editor of Sree TV.

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2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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