
The Madras High Court dissolved the special bench constituted to hear the cases related to temple idol thefts in Tamil Nadu.
According to the Madras High Court notification issued on Tuesday (May 4), there are only a few writ petitions/public interest litigations relating to movable properties like theft or disappearance of temple idols, jewels and other valuables owned by temples pending in the principal seat at the Madras and Madurai benches.
“Therefore, in modification to the notification dated 23.07.2018 and notification dated 21.03.2019, published in the cause list of the Madras High Court, it is notified that those cases shall be listed before the respective division benches/ single benches as per roster,” the notification read.
Thus, the Madras High Court dissolved the special bench comprising Justice R Mahadevan and Justice PD Audikesavalu. It was this bench that quashed the government order on transferring all the pending cases to the CBI and appointed Pon Manickavel as the special officer for the CB-CID idol wing after his retirement from the police service as Inspector General of Police.