Land Act applicable to temples too, says HC

Acquisition with riders

The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday made it clear to AP and Telangana states that endowment lands cannot be acquired without invoking acquisition proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act, 2013.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Shameem Akhter, while dealing with a batch of writ petitions from both states challenging procurement of temple lands for public purpose with the mutual consent of the temple committees in both the states, said that any land belonging to temples has to be acquired through the Act, 2013.

Earlier, the High Court had granted a stay on acquisition of temple lands through mutual consent. In view of the stay, irrigation, R&B and other departments of both states moved applications seeking modification of the earlier orders.

S. Ramachandra Rao, senior counsel appearing for one of the petitioners, urged the court to implead the temple concerned as a party to the petition in case the court permits acquisition of temple land for public purpose.

He requested the court to direct the authorities to deposit compensation in the bank account of the temple concerned before taking possession of its land.

While considering the argument, the bench permitted the authorities to acquire 1.82 acres of temple land for Polavaram Left Canal and also a portion of land belonging to a temple in the Old City of Hyderabad for road widening.

The bench said that if the government departments come forward for acquisition of temple lands for public purpose under Act 2013, the court will consider modification of its earlier order.

D. Ramesh, special counsel for AP, submitted that if the court permits regularisation of constructions that have come up on lands belonging to Simhachalam Devasthanam in Visakhapatnam, the government was prepared to purchase alternative land for the temple from the revenue generated though the regularisation.

Mr Ramachandra Rao opposed the proposal saying that all constructions on Devasthanam lands are illegal.

Reminding that the issue has been pending for several years, the bench adjourned the case for a week.