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The State of Madhya Pradesh v. Pujari Utthan Avam Kalyan Samiti & Anr.

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 447Decided 6 Sept 2021
Civil Appeal No. 4850 of 2021
Justice Hemant Gupta · Justice A.S. Bopanna

Background

The Madhya Pradesh Government had issued circulars (in 1994 and 2008) directing that temple priests' ("Pujaris") names be removed from the ownership/occupancy columns of revenue land records and that, in their place, the Collector's name be recorded as "manager," to prevent unauthorized sale or mortgage of temple land by priests. An association of priests challenged these circulars, and a Single Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court quashed them, a decision affirmed by a Division Bench on intra-court appeal, holding that the priests had inheritable rights that could not be taken away by mere executive instruction.

Decision Breakdown

Tracing a long and conflicting line of earlier High Court and Supreme Court decisions, the Supreme Court held that a Pujari is only a manager/caretaker of a deity's property for performing worship and cultivation duties, not an owner or tenant ("Bhumiswami") with any transferable or inheritable interest in the temple land. Since the priests never held any such vested property right, the Government's circulars directing removal of their names from the ownership and occupancy columns were lawful and did not infringe any legal right. However, the Court clarified that the Collector cannot automatically be recorded as "manager" of every temple's land: that applies only where a temple is actually vested in or managed by the State, not to every temple generally. The appeal was allowed and the High Court's judgment was set aside.

Lesson Learnt

A temple priest who performs rituals and manages agricultural land attached to a temple is legally a caretaker of the deity's property, not its owner, so removing his name from land-ownership records does not violate any genuine property right, though government cannot indiscriminately install itself as manager of every temple's affairs.

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

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