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Sandhya Pant vs Deepak Ruwali & Ors.

SLP (C) · 2022 INSC 823Decided 11 Aug 2022
SLP (C) No. 1119 of 2021
Indira Banerjee · J.K. Maheshwari

Background

The appellant, claiming to be a descendant-by-marriage of the founding family of the century-old Chitai Golu Devta Temple in Almora, Uttarakhand, was managing the temple's affairs along with other family members when a local advocate filed a public interest litigation (PIL) asking the High Court to direct the state to set up a proper registered committee to manage the shrine, amid allegations of mismanagement of temple funds. The Uttarakhand High Court eventually disposed of the PIL by directing that an independent government-backed Management Committee (modeled on a nearby temple's committee) take over the temple's non-religious affairs, while leaving disputed questions of "shebait" (hereditary management) rights to be decided in a civil suit, but it passed this order without first deciding the appellant's pending application to be formally added as a party to the case.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court had not erred in its substantive approach: because the shebaitship/inheritance rights within the Pant family were genuinely disputed and needed to be proved with evidence, they were rightly left for adjudication in a proper civil suit rather than being decided in a summary writ/PIL proceeding. On the temple's non-religious affairs, since the land belonged to the government and the temple attracted large numbers of devotees and public funds, the State was entitled to set up an independent committee to manage upkeep, sanitation and amenities without displacing the family's religious/ritual functions. On the procedural complaint, the Court noted the appellant was not formally denied a hearing (other family members in her group did get a hearing, and nothing stopped her from appearing and making submissions even without being formally impleaded) so the failure to decide her impleadment application first was not fatal. The appeals were dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

Courts exercising writ/PIL jurisdiction will not adjudicate disputed private rights (like hereditary religious management rights) on affidavits alone, such disputes must go to a full civil trial, while the State retains the power to regulate the secular, non-religious administration of a public temple situated on government land.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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