The owner of the land associated with the temple is not the priest but God: Supreme

The name of the priest or manager of the temple cannot be shown as the owner in the revenue record

The Madhya Pradesh government won by challenging the High Court order in the Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ruled that the priest, not the owner of the land attached to the temple, but the god installed in the temple can be considered. Justices Hemant Gupta and A.S. Bopanna's bench ruled that the priest owned the land for the purpose of arranging the land attached to the temple, in fact he could not be the owner of the land.

Only the name of God has to be shown in the name box of the land owner, as the God seated in the temple is not a human being but he is the legal owner of all the property of the temple.

The acquisition of land is also done by God, but his servants or managers do it on behalf of God, so no manager or priest can be named in the land owner's name box, the country's apex court said after hearing a case on Monday.

It may be mentioned that the Madhya Pradesh government had issued two circulars corresponding to various provisions of the MP Law Revenue Code-1959 in which it ordered to remove the name of Puraji from the revenue record so that unauthorized persons would not sell the temple property and land. However, the dispute later reached the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

The High Court had quashed the Madhya Pradesh government's circular, so the Madhya Pradesh government challenged the High Court's order in the Supreme Court. The apex court had clarified during the hearing that the temple priest was not a farm laborer of the temple land, nor was he a person holding a land lease agreement nor was he a tenant of the revenue-free land. The priest is the only person who manages his property on behalf of the temple.