DHARMARTH TRUST Vs. STATE OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner Dharmarth Trust has come to this Court with a prayer that instead of paying compensation they be given in exchange the State land. It is submitted that the petitioner is a religious body looking after the management, supervision, control of the Trust in the State of Jammu & Kashmir.

(2.) IT is submitted that land measuring 5 Kanals and 16 Marlas which is a State land comprising in Khasra No. 618 Chand Nagar Jammu was given in exchange of land to one Amrit Malhotra. As indicated above the petitioner submits that instead of paying compensation they be granted alternative site in the city of Jammu. It is stated that some Samadhis were existing on a piece of land measuring 1 Kanal 15 Marlas. This was in Kh. No. 620 situated at below Gumat Jammu. This was known as Samadhi Rajgan.

(3.) THE law does recognise the shifting of Samadhis. If any judicial precedent is required then reference be made to the decision given by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the case reported as Akhara Shri Braham Buta v. State of Punjab. Civil Writ No. 8539 of 1988, 1987(2) Legal Reports and Statute 542 wherein it was observed: - "Learned counsel for the petitioner con -tended that the acquisition was completely violative of Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution as acquisition of religious places is totally prohibited under the Constitution. He relied on Mahant Ram Kishan Dass v. State of Punjab and others 1980(1) SCC 377: (1986) 1 Punjab Legal Reports and Statutes 394 to contend that the Samadh therein had been left out from acquisition and from this it was inferable that since to survival of the Samadh was itself at stake the State voluntarily walked out of the acquisition.