Patna: The Bihar government has started the process of making the temple land the owner of the deities instead of the priests. Law Minister Pramod Kumar gave this information on Friday. The decision could have wide socio-political ramifications in the state. Kumar told PTI that the law department will soon issue a circular to remove the names of priests from the revenue records to protect the properties from unauthorized claims.
“The priest cannot be considered as the owner of the land and the revenue records will now have the names of the deities of the temple,” Kumar said. He said that this would help in dealing with large-scale irregularities in temple land as the priests were buying and selling these lands as owners.
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The minister said, “The Bihar government will implement the order of the Supreme Court issued on September 6, 2021. A Supreme Court bench of Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice AS Bopanna had ordered that ‘there is no such provision under law’ that it is necessary to mention the name of the priest or manager in the revenue record.
The bench had also cited the Ram Janmabhoomi case verdict in favor of its ruling that the deity in a temple is the owner of the land and property can be held in his name. Kumar said that he is visiting all the divisional headquarters in the state regarding the matter and asking the concerned officials to initiate the process at the earliest. (agency)