SC clarifies temple & its land ownership rights.
The supreme court made a significant statement about temple property on Monday, saying that the temple priest cannot be regarded as the owner of the land and that the deity is the owner of the ground linked to the temple (Bhumiswami). The priest can only perform land-related activities to administer the temple property, according to a bench comprising Justice hemant Gupta and Justice AS Bopanna.
"Only the name of the god should be placed in the ownership field because the deity is the landowner as a juristic person. The land is occupied solely by the god, whose tasks are carried out on his behalf by servants or administrators. As a result, there is no need to include the manager's or priest's names in the ownership column "The supreme court stated.
The court said that the priest is not a Kashtkar Mourushi (tenant in cultivation), a government lessee, or an ordinary tenant of Maufi property(land that is exempt from paying taxes) in this case, but that the land is allocated to him by the Aukaf Department (belonging to the Devasthan) for the sole purpose of administration.
Two circulars issued by the state government under the mp Law Revenue Code-1959 have been invalidated by the supreme Court. These circulars ordered the priest's name to be removed from the income records so that he could not unlawfully sell temple property. The court stated, "The priest is simply a promise to handle the deity's property."
"Only the name of the god should be placed in the ownership field because the deity is the landowner as a juristic person. The land is occupied solely by the god, whose tasks are carried out on his behalf by servants or administrators. As a result, there is no need to include the manager's or priest's names in the ownership column "The supreme court stated.
The court said that the priest is not a Kashtkar Mourushi (tenant in cultivation), a government lessee, or an ordinary tenant of Maufi property(land that is exempt from paying taxes) in this case, but that the land is allocated to him by the Aukaf Department (belonging to the Devasthan) for the sole purpose of administration.
Two circulars issued by the state government under the mp Law Revenue Code-1959 have been invalidated by the supreme Court. These circulars ordered the priest's name to be removed from the income records so that he could not unlawfully sell temple property. The court stated, "The priest is simply a promise to handle the deity's property."