HC directs DC to take over management of Srinagar’s Raghunath Temple

The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh high court has directed the Srinagar divisional commissioner (DC) to immediately take over the management of Raghunath Temple in Barzulla and its properties including its 159-kanal land.

The division bench of justices Sanjeev Kumar and MA Choudhary ordered that the DC may manage the temple and its properties either himself or through a committee of officers of the revenue and other departments.

Earlier, the court had issued similar orders about temples in Anantnag and Ganderbal districts.

The court in its order said the properties shall remain in the name of the temple under the management of the district administration and no change in revenue records shall be permitted.

“The DC or the committee appointed by him as aforesaid, as the case may be, shall demarcate the entire land belonging to the temple and fix boundaries for its proper identification. It shall also take requisite steps for removal of encroachments, if any, in accordance with law,” the order read.

The court further said there shall be no mutation attested in the name of any mahant or his disciple and the properties shall remain in the name of the temple under the management of district administration and shall be reflected in the revenue records.

The bench was hearing a writ petition of four siblings Hamida Banoo, Mian Abdul Qayoom, Mian Rafiq Ahmad and Mian Mohammad Yousuf and others.

One of the petitioners, Mian Qayoom, is the former J&K High Court Bar Association president. He is currently in jail in a murder case.

The Mian family and other residents of Barzulla had challenged the DC Kashmir’s 2021 decision to handover the entire 159 kanal of land to the Raghunath temple and claimed they too have rights on the land.

The claim of the Mian family is related to only a piece of land measuring six kanal and 10 marla as they in their petition had said their grandfather Mian Mohammad Sultan had been in possession of the land in the 1950s and later possession was transferred to their father Mian Abdul Rahim.

The DC in 2021 had passed directions for handing over the entire land to the temple management.

The court on Tuesday said the entire issue needs to be adjudicated upon by a competent court and said the Main family and others, who have been in possession of the temple property, cannot be termed rank encroachers and must be given adequate opportunity of hearing before any action.

“It is, thus, high time that the government steps in and takes charge of the temple properties so that these are saved from further encroachments and appropriate action is initiated to free them from encroachments, if any, taken place on such properties,” the order said.

DC Kashmir had conveyed to the court that the temple was damaged by miscreants during the 1990s and then constructions were erected by many people including members of the Mian family by taking advantage of the situation in Kashmir.

In an order dated July 9 in a series of petitions and applications relating to temple properties in J&K and their management, the HC decided on the petition regarding management of Shri Raghu Nath Mandir and Nagbal Gautam Nag Temple, Anantnag, saying the properties “vest in the Deity” and, therefore, are required to be managed in an effective and peaceful manner.

The order had come on the heels on another judgement by justice Sanjeev Kumar who allowed a petition by the members of the Kashmiri Pandit community and directed the district magistrate of north Kashmir Ganderbal district to preserve, protect and maintain two Hindu religious shrines namely Asthapan Devraj Bharav situated in Nuner and Vidhushe shrine.