The state, as custodian, cannot unilaterally usurp, nor permit any of its officers to usurp, the property of the religious or charitable institutions it is charged to protect, a transaction that offends this principle, whatever its label or ostensible public purpose, is liable to be struck down, the Supreme Court has held.
The court passed the ruling while setting aside a purported gift transfer of a temple property by a temporary trustee to the state government despite objections from devotees and other trustees.
“Our country’s religious institutions are not merely places of worship, they are, in law and, in fact, repositories of considerable wealth, land, buildings, jewellery and specie, accumulated over centuries through the offerings of ordinary devotees and the endowments of kings and commoners alike, given in the faith that what was dedicated to the deity would remain dedicated to the deity in perpetuity,” a bench of Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe said in the judgment.
“That wealth, once given, ceases to belong to the donor, to the priest, to the trustee, or to the State; it vests in the deity, and every hand through which it subsequently passes holds it only in trust for the deity and, through the deity, for the community of worshippers it was meant to serve. Every custodian holds it only in trust for the deity and the worshippers it serves,” it said.
Justice Aradhe, who authored the judgment, observed: “The Gift Deed dated 30.08.2017 executed in favour of the Government of Tamil Nadu is declared null and void under Section 41(1) of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959, and its registration, being contrary to Section 22-A of the Registration Act, 1908, as applicable to the State of Tamil Nadu, is of no legal effect.”
Since the government has already constructed a taluk office for running the district administration at the site, the apex court, instead of directing demolition of the property on the land belonging to the temple, said the authorities shall pay a monthly lease amount of ₹31,000 “with effect from 08.03.2019, the date on which the subject land was handed over for construction. The rent shall be re-fixed once in three years under Section 34-A of the 1959 Act, but not below that amount”.
In this case, the land measuring 1 acre and 10 cents in survey numbers 36/4, 36/5 and 41/2 of Kodumudi village in Erode district of Tamil Nadu belonged to Nagapalayam Mariamman-Ponnachiamman Temple and was administered by the temple trust.
On August 30, 2017, the tehsildar issued a certificate stating that the seventh respondent, S. Bhoopathy (the temporary trustee), is the trustee of the temple, a certificate being issued for registration of a deed in the sub-registrar’s office.
By a gift deed on the same date, the temporary trustee gifted the land to the Tamil Nadu government, represented by the district collector and the tehsildar and accepted by the tehsildar. The stated purpose was construction of a taluk office on the land.
This was challenged as illegal and void but Madras High Court accepted the gift transfer in favour of the government, following which the devotees approached the apex court by way of special leave petition.
“...A temple property is held for the deity and not for gratuitous disposal by whoever happens to hold the office of trustee, however well-intentioned,” Justice Aradhe said.