Temple land cannot be sold, says minister

The land in possession of temples in Bihar cannot be sold in the future and will remain in the name of deities as raiyat (tenant farmer), state’s revenue and land reforms minister Ram Surat Kumar said in the assembly on Thursday.

The land in possession of temples in Bihar cannot be sold in the future and will remain in the name of deities as raiyat (tenant farmer), state’s revenue and land reforms minister Ram Surat Kumar said in the assembly on Thursday.

CPI-ML legislators demonstrate outside the Bihar Assembly on Thursday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

The minister said government would soon bring an amendment legislation to restrict any sale of land belonging to temples in a bid to check malpractices in transaction of properties belonging to religious bodies and instances of encroachment. “ The land belonging to temples have been donated by people over a period of time and it cannot be allowed to be sold,” he said.

The minister said directions have been issued to put the name of deity of the temple as raiyat in the prescribed forms related to properties of temples, as also names of priests. “ The priests can manage the costs of running the temples and other expenses from the money collected from various sources of the temples,” the minister said.

Kumar said temples were mostly under Bihar Dharmik Nyas Board, which is guided by the law department. The total land identified in possession of temples in various districts is about 24,180 acres, the minister said.

In his call attention motion, Sanjay Sarougi of the BJP had demanded that government free encroached land of temples and put a stop on sale of the land of temples across Bihar by referring to a recent Supreme Court judgment wherein it had been ruled that priests cannot become owners of land vested to deities and they cannot sell the land owned by temples.

In a supplementary, Sarougi sought to know what steps were being taken for registration of unregistered land of temples. Citing a recent survey conducted by the law department, he said land belonging to 1509 temples across the state had been found to have not been registered.

The BJP legislator also highlighted that there is a rule that circle officers are bound to send a proposal to Nyas board for registration of land of temples which earn any income above ₹1 by forming a committee.

“ We have carried the survey and circles officers can send the proposals to Nyas board for registered or unregistered land of temples. I will request the revenue minister that land of temples be demarcated so that there is no encroachment or any misuse of land,” law minister Pramod Kumar told the House, intervening during the government reply.

However, the revenue minister said he would look into the matter as the issue concerned several departments including planning, law and registration.

At this point, Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha asked the revenue and law ministers to coordinate so that registration of unregistered land of temples and their demarcation could be done at the earliest.