Bombay HC order to Recover 121hectares of Temple land following HJS PIL

 Due to the PIL filed by Hindu Janajagruti Samiti in the High Court,’Shri Viththal Rukmini temple’ could recover 121 hectares of land after the lapse of 30 years

Outstanding success of the fight by Hindu Janajagruti Samiti

Since last 30 years, ‘Shri Viththal Rukmini temple’ committee at Pandharpur is under the control of the State Government. Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, in its press conference held on 15th June 2013 had exposed the corruption and indolence on the part of the temple committee. Samiti had held agitations for the criminal neglect by the temple committee such as sale of cow-lineage animals, storage of the donations offered by the devotees in gunny bags for 2 months etc.

Since the then Government had not given positive response to above agitations, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti was forced to file Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in Bombay High Court against the temple committee. The petition included several aspects such as not having control over the land ad-measuring more than 1200 acres despite the land belonged to the temple as per records, and as a result the temple being deprived of the income even of a single rupee. In this PIL, Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad, the organisation of devout Hindu lawyers helped Hindu Janajagruti Samiti a lot. We presume that the present Government has also helped in this PIL.

At last, temple committee and the Government were forced to take action as a result of the order passed by the Hon. Bombay High Court. According to the affidavit filed by the temple committee in the High Court, temple committee had to recover 121.6 hectares of land. A Government officer is normally appointed for full time as the Chief officer on the temple committee. However, till now, the Chief Officer was not full time. As per the order passed by the Hon. Bombay High Court, a full time Chief Officer has now been appointed.

Responses