It was also guaranteed that the State government shall secure due repayment of the deposits made by temples as and when they get matured. File
| Photo Credit: M. Srinath
The Tamil Nadu government, on Friday (May 29, 2026), gave a sovereign guarantee for the security of temple funds deposited in Tamil Nadu Power Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TNPFIC), a State owned non-banking finance corporation (NBFC) that funds Tamil Nadu Power Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO).In a memo filed before Justices G.R. Swaminathan and V. Lakshminarayanan, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department secretary J. Kumaragurubaran said, “the Government of Tamil Nadu has deemed it appropriate to extend its assurance by way of a guarantee on the safety of the deposits made by the respective temples with TNPFIC.”It was also guaranteed that the State government shall secure due repayment of the deposits made by temples as and when they get matured. The interim guarantee was given at the instance of the court pending final adjudication of a public interest litigation petition filed by temple activist T.R. Ramesh who expressed apprehensions over the safety of the deposits.When senior counsel S. Ravi, assisted by B. Jagannath, highlighted the use of the term ‘temples’ alone in the memo and feared that the government should not end up excluding the funds of Mutts and such other institutions, the judges recorded the submission of Advocate General Vijay Narayan that the word ‘temples’ found in the memo may be read as ‘religious institutions.’Further, taking note that advocate Chevanan Mohan, representing the Reserve Bank of India, too had entered appearance in the PIL petition, the judges directed the High Court Registry to list the main case for hearing after six weeks. In his memo, Mr. Kumaragurubaran had said, the temple funds were being desposited in TNPFIC and Tamil Nadu Transport Development Finance Corporation (TNTDFC) for several decades together.However, a Government Order was issued only on February 17, 2026 for amending the Religious Institutions (Custody, Investments and Lending or Borrowing of Moneys) Rules, 1963 and thereby include TNPFIC in the list of institutions in which temple funds could be deposited and hence the present PIL petition had been filed, the Secretary said and assured the court that the funds in both TNPFIC and TNTDFC were highly safe.“There has not been a single instance of default by either of the aforesaid corporations in respect of payment of interest or any other nature of defaults thereby establishing a consistent and reliable track record... The government has examined the financial statements/balance sheets of TNPFIC and it could be ascertained that the aforesaid corporation has consistently recorded profits,” the memo read.It went on to state: “India Ratings has also rated the fixed deposits of TNPFIC as ‘A’ thereby marking them as stable. The borrower namely TANGEDCO has also demonstrated a consistent and proven track record of timely servicing of its financial obligations with no recorded instances of default nor has its accounts ever been classified as Non Performing Assets.”In his affidavit, the PIL petitioner Mr. Ramesh had claimed that TNPFIC had secured a ‘BBB minus’ rating which was the lowest that a NBFC could possess to accept public deposits. He had also said, that TNPFIC functions entirely as a dedicated funding arm of the State power sector and its arms such as Tangedco which have an accumulated loss of over ₹1.62 lakh crore. Published - May 29, 2026 06:25 pm IST
