Snehal Upadhyay-
Published on: September 7, 2021, at 11:59 IST
The Supreme Court held that priests can’t be the owners of the land which has been vested in the name of deities and directed the Government to restrain being the owner of the land by substituting the name of priests with that of area Collector.
The Division Bench comprising Justices Hemant Gupta and A S Bopanna was hearing an appeal made by the Madhya Pradesh Government which had nullified a notification which directed to remove the name of priests from revenue records as owners of temple land which is on the name of deities.
Advocate Saurabh Mishra representing the State contended that the instructions were issued to delete the name of priests from the revenue land in order to safeguard the properties of the temple from any unauthorized sale.
Advocate Divyakant Lahoti representing the Association of Priests responded that the priests have their ‘Bhumiswami’ (ownership) rights over the land which cannot be interfered with or taken away by any executive authorities.
The Bench while pronouncing the Judgement stated “Taking into consideration the past precedents, and the fact that under the Gwalior Act, Pujari had been given right to manage the property of the temple, it is clear that it does not elevate him to the status of tenant in cultivation… Since the priest cannot be treated to be Bhumiswami, they have no right which could be protected under any of the provisions of the Code.”
The Bench stated that in the ownership column the name of deity should be mentioned as a deity is considered to be a Juristic Person and hence, has the rights to own the land.
The Apex Court disapproved that decision of the State to substitute names of priests with collectors as owners of the temple land which is in the name of the deities.
The Bench further said, “We find that the name of the Collector as manager cannot be recorded in respect of property vested in the deity as the Collector cannot be a manager of all temples unless it is a temple vested with the state.”
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