Making an important remark regarding the property of temples, the Supreme Court on Monday said that the priest of the temple cannot be considered as the owner of the land and the deity is the owner of the land attached to the temple (Bhumiswami). A bench of Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice AS Bopanna said that the priest can only do land-related work for the purpose of managing the temple property.
“Only the name of the deity should be written in the ownership column, as the deity being a juristic person, is the owner of the land. The land is occupied by the deity only, whose works are done by the servants or managers on behalf of the deity. Hence, there is no need to mention the name of the manager or the priest in the ownership column,” the apex court said.
The Bench observed that the law, in this case, is clear that the priest is not a Kashtkar Mourushi (tenant in cultivation) or a government lessee or an ordinary tenant of Maufi land (land exempted from payment…