NALLAMOTHU VEERAIAH Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) :- Sri. Nandikunta Vigneswara Swamy Temple, situated in Nadendla Village and Mandal, Guntur District, is being presently managed by the petitioners. The forefathers of the petitioners had been given Ac.1.00 cents of land, by way of a Registered Gift Deed, dtd. 3/1/1940, for the purpose of maintaining the subject temple, and the same was carried out earlier by the forefathers of the petitioners and subsequently, the petitioners themselves.

(2.) The petitioners are aggrieved by the proceedings of the Commissioner, Endowments, who is arrayed as the 2 respondent, in Rc. No. J1/350/2021, dtd. 29/4/2021, directing the publication of the temple as a Hindu Religious Institution under Sec. 6(c)(ii) of the A.P. Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, 1987 (for short, "the Act"). These proceedings also directed the Assistant Commissioner, Endowments, Guntur to take necessary action for registration of the temple under sec. 43 of the Act, and for submission of proposals for entering the property of this Institution in the register under Sec. 22-A(1)(c) of Registration Act.

(3.) The objection to the said order is twofold. Firstly, it is contended that the temple has no property and the lands being claimed, as the property of the Temple, have been gifted to the forefathers of the Petitioners and consequently they are the owners of the lands, as such the lands cannot be registered in the name of the Temple and further the exercise is a malafide exercise being carried out for extraneous. Secondly, the procedure adopted by the 2 respondent in directing publication of the temple under Sec. 6(c)(ii) of the Act, without any notice to the petitioners and without registering the temple under Sec. 43 of the Act, is in violation of the principles of natural justice as well as the provisions of the Act, itself.