DALIP KUMAR JHA Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this common order we propose to dispose of L.P.A. Nos.2043, 2044, 2052 of 2014 and 224 of 2015 as they hover around the same controversy raised by the appellants. All of them arise from a common judgment dated 1.12.2014 of the learned Single Judge passed in C.W.P. No.7345 of 2014 which is the order impugned herein. L.P.A. No.2043 of 2014 has been preferred by Dalip Kumar Jha who was also the writ petitioner in C.W.P. No.7345 of 2014. The Divya Jyoti Sansthan (hereinafter referred to as the Sansthan) has filed L.P.A. No.2044 of 2014, while the State, equally aggrieved of the judgment of the learned Single Judge, has filed L.P.A. No.2052 of 2014, while Sadhvi Tapeshwari Bharti a follower has filed L.P.A. No.224 of 2015.

(2.) We need not set out the facts of the petition and the counter replies submitted by the contestants to the controversy in detail, as they have been elaborately set out in the impugned judgment, but for the purpose of forming a complete narrative of the present order, we would briefly touch upon the factual aspects so that it offers an understanding of the controversy that we have embarked upon to answer.

(3.) A religious preacher by the name of Ashutosh Ji Maharaj, Head of the Divya Jyoti Sansthan (hereinafter referred as the Sansthan) is at the centre of the dispute, after he proclaimed himself to be in a 'state' of Samadhi, with a declaration to return to the world of mortals (though he has not reverted to state of consciousness thereafter) with his followers, in unimpeachable belief of this fact and preserving the body though declared to be clinically dead by a medical board.