A major breakthrough has been witnessed with regard to the reclamation of illegally occupied temple properties in J&K, more specifically Kashmir! The credit goes to the tireless work put in by learned officers of the Jammu & Kashmir Police and Sh. Mohsin-ul-Showkat Qadri (Sr. AAG) along with Adv. Ms Maha Majeed.
The division bench of J&K High Court has clubbed all the matters relating to reservation and protection of temples and temple properties, which were either sold, sublet, leased, encroached , or unauthorisedly occupied from last three decades.
It was noted that certain sections of Kashmiri Muslims on the basis of inducement of threat, or by way of pumping the unlawful earned money, have grabbed the Temple properties worth crores in the valley in connivance with insiders/ self styled Mahanta/ self-styled Pujaris. All of such transactions are sham and illegal transfer as the temple property cannot be sold, let alone be given to any third-party the way it has been done in the last three decades.
Division bench of High Court has started hearing these matters which are clubbed and are hundreds in number.
On Principal, honourable division bench of High Court has agreed on the basis of the submissions made by the respected Senior AAG to handover the possession of the temple & it’s immovable properties to state / DMs of respective districts who will take over from the miscreants whether insider or outsider .
Govt has also been directed to retrieve the encroachments and illegally sold land to the third parties and restore the position to the temple and should be kept on the name of Diety .
This approach of the DB of High Court will govern the fate of over 400+ temples whose cases are pending and now the matter is listed to be decided w.r.t. the leftover cases on coming Thursday that is on 18th of July .
It ought to be noted that the properties which were occupied and encroached directly /indirectly by Mian Qayoom (a terrorist enabling & sympathising advocate who himself terrorised the J&K Bar & is now in jail) at Bulbul Bagh Barzulla Srinagar, which actually belongs to Hanuman Mandir is also likely to be taken up by the hon’ble court in the coming weeks.
The current pronouncement has ordered for the properties belonging to 2 temples be restored without delay, and they are:
- Shri Raghu Nath Mandir
- Nagbal Gautam Nag Temple, Anantnag
Further, the judgement unequivocally states that the properties in question vest in the Deity and, therefore, are required to be managed in an effective and peaceful manner.
Should the judges of the hon’ble High Court give welcome judgments such as this, not only would it enable true reconciliation but ensure the preservation of the rich cultural heritage of Jammu & Kashmir.
CC: @IndicMeenakshi@jsaideepak@ARanganathan72@vikramsampath@Vishnu_Jain1@adv_hsjain@DevalayaOrg