A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on September 2, 2026 set aside a single judge’s February 2023 order that barred Tamil Nadu temples from acquiring elephants and required the state to shift all captive elephants to government rehabilitation homes. The bench, comprising Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan, allowed two writ appeals filed against the earlier direction.
The judges held that the original order could not be sustained because it was passed against parties who were strangers to the proceedings and had no opportunity to present their case. Senior Counsel A.K. Sriram, representing the Tiruchendur Subramaniaswamy Temple management, and Special Government Pleader R. Bharanidharan, representing the state, argued that neither the temples nor the government had been heard before the single judge issued the sweeping directive.
The bench noted that the single judge had previously disposed of a 2020 writ petition permitting a private individual, S.G.M. Shaa alias Sheik Mohamed of Theni, to keep the female elephant Lalitha despite the Forest Department’s refusal. After Lalitha fell in 2023, the judge revisited the case and upheld orders concerning her proper upkeep, but intervened only with respect to the broader directions affecting all temple and privately held elephants.
The court highlighted that the Tamil Nadu Captive Elephants (Management and Maintenance) Rules, 2011—framed under Section 64(2)(f) of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972—already provide a comprehensive code governing the possession, care, and retirement of captive elephants, including those donated to temples. Rule 3 expressly permits temples to receive such donations.
The bench concluded that subordinate legislation of this nature carries the force of law until it is set aside by a competent forum or amended by the rule‑making authority. Consequently, a court cannot, in an individual case, issue a direction that effectively overrides the established rules without a direct challenge to those rules.
