BHUBANESWAR: In a significant judgement on the long-pending dispute over 57 acres of land belonging to Lord Jagannath, the Court of the Member, Board of Revenue, has directed Jatni tehsildar to correct the current record of rights (RoR) and record the land in the name of ‘Shree Jagannath Mahaprabhu Bije, Puri’, represented through the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee.
The case pertains to a large tract of land situated in Kudiyari Mouza under Jatni tehsil in Khurda district. The temple authorities had contended that the long-term lease granted in 1951 for establishment of an industrial unit was not legally valid. Based on the said lease, the land was subsequently recorded in the RoR in the names of private parties, including Nilamani Dubey and others as well as Gopabandhu Glass and Pottery Works Limited.
In his judgement, on a revision petition filed by the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), member, Board of Revenue, Satyabrata Sahu observed that under Section 58 of the Orissa Hindu Religious Endowments Act, 1939, any lease of immovable property belonging to a religious institution for a period exceeding five years required the prior approval of the commissioner of Endowments. However, in the present case, the opposite parties failed to produce any evidence establishing that such approval had been obtained.
The court further clarified that mere registration of a lease deed does not, by itself, confer legal validity upon the transaction. It observed that the objective of the lease was to establish an industrial unit. However, the documents placed before the court did not establish that any such industrial unit had ever been set up or that the temple had derived any financial benefit from the lease.
On the contrary, the latest field inspection report submitted by the tehsildar indicated that the disputed land continued to remain vacant.
The court held that a RoR does not create or confer title, it merely constitutes prima facie evidence relating to possession. “Where the very basis of an entry in the RoR is founded upon an illegal transaction, the revisional authority possesses full jurisdiction to correct such entries,” it stated.
Besides, the court concluded that the current RoR prepared in 1965 suffered from legal infirmities and could not be sustained. It directed Jatni tehsildar to immediately correct the RoR by recording the disputed land in the name of ‘Shree Jagannath Mahaprabhu Bije, Puri’.