Temple land belongs to deity or priests? Here's what Supreme Court observed

Top court upholds circulars issued under the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code, 1959.

A 2-judge bench of the Supreme Court has ruled that the presiding deity of a temple is the owner of the land attached to the temple, while priests are only required to perform rituals and maintain properties of the deity. In doing so, the bench, comprising Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice AS Bopanna upheld circulars issued by the Madhya Pradesh government directing that the names of priests be deleted from revenue records of temple properties.

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In its order, the bench cited precedents including the Ayodhya land dispute case. “The law is very clear on the distinction that priests hold such land only for the purpose of management. They are not ordinary tenants and should only manage the property of the deity. Such rights can be withdrawn if they fail to do the task they have been assigned, which is to conduct prayers and manage the land. Hence, they cannot be treated as owners of the land,” it said.

Monday’s ruling was delivered on a petition filed by the Madhya Pradesh government challenging the quashing by the high court of the said circulars, which were issued under the Land Revenue Code, 1959.

In its appeal, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government argued that these executive instructions were passed to prevent illegal sale of temple properties by priests. The priests, on the other hand, contended that they have been conferred rights to ownership of the land which, they, said, cannot be withdrawn by means of executive orders.

The hearings in the case, therefore, were held to determine whether a priest can be considered as the owner of temple land under the state Land Revenue Code.