HC quashes sale of temple land

The Karnataka High Court has declared as illegal the sale of 6,000 sq.ft.land, belonging to Muzarai Department-controlled Kadu Malleswaraswamy temple in Bangalore, to Sai Mandali, a private religious and charitable trust.The Division Bench, comprising acting Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice A.S. Bopanna, said the sale deed executed in favour of Sai Mandali was null and void as according to the law, if transfer of property was neither necessary nor beneficial to the temple, it had no validity.The Bench passed the order while allowing a public interest litigation petition filed by Ajit Kalyan questioning the sale in 2009 for a price of Rs. 1.44 crore.

‘Why such haste?’

Pointing out that the sale deed was executed in favour of Sai Mandali a day after public objections were rejected, the Bench asked: “Why was there such haste in execution of the document? Was it calculated to frustrate apposition by rendering it infructuous? The activities of Sai Mandali may well be genuine and laudable, but this is an irrelevant consideration, since it is the interest of the temple, in contradistinction to that of Sai Mandali which alone requires consideration.The statute requires that the interest of this ancient temple must be exclusively kept in perspective, and in these circumstances it may be possible to attribute motives.”

The Bench went on to say the Government should have protected the interests of the ancient temple, but its approval to sell the temple land was only in the interest of the “influential” Sai Mandali.‘Interest of the temple must be kept in perspective’
Source : The Hindu