Bhubaneswar: A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directives to the Odisha government and Shree Jagannath Temple Administration to stop ‘settling and selling of any of the properties of Lord Jagannath’.
Advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha has filed the plea in the apex court on behalf of ‘Jan Swabhiman Welfare Society’.
The petitioner in the plea has requested the Supreme Court to dissolve the temple administration and constitute an interim judicial committee that would oversee creation of administrative mechanism which will decide on behalf of Lord Jagannath.
The petitioner has also sought direction to the respondents to ensure that any temporary or permanent settlement on the properties of Shree Jagannath comprise only of people who adhere to the religion which worships Jagannath Mahaprabhu.
“Pass directions to constitute a judicial commission headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court and monitored by the SC to investigate the whole issue related to properties of Shree Jagannath,” the petition reads.
Law Minister Pratap Jena had said March 16 in the Assembly that the Odisha government has initiated a process to ‘sell’ 35,272 acre of land belonging to Lord Jagannath, in Odisha and six other states.
Giving a written reply to a question by BJP lawmaker Mohan Charan Majhi, Jena had said as per the recommendations of a committee formed under the chairmanship of then Governor BD Sharma, the government is taking necessary steps to ‘sell’ 35,272.235 acre of land properties of the temple.
Jena said Lord Jagannath owns 60,426.943 acre spread over 24 of the 30 districts of Odisha. Out of which, the temple administration could prepare final Record of Rights (RoR) over 34,876.983 acre.
“In accordance with the recommendation of the commission, steps are being taken to sell out the land as per state government’s approved Uniform Policy (Saman Niti),” the minister had said.
PNN
