VIJAYAWADA: AP High Court on Tuesday made it clear that the temple lands can only be used for religious and spiritual purposes, and district collectors have no authority to allocate them for other uses.
The Court also emphasised that courts are the permanent guardians of temple property and will always protect temple assets. It clarified that such lands should be used solely for spiritual, religious, and devotional purposes.
It may be noted be noted that, seeking allotment of the temple land belonging to Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple, Godugupeta (Krishna District) located at Gollapudi in NTR district for a permanent annual exhibition under the banner of Vijayawada Utsav as well as proposing to allot 5 acres of the land for the golf course project, NTR District Collector wrote a letter to the Endowments Department on July 22, challenging this, advocates Sujay Kumar and others filed a petitions in the High Court.
Justice Nunepalli Harinath, heard the petitions and said such lands should be used solely for spiritual, religious, and devotional purposes.
Reacting to the land allotment for Vijayawada exhibition, the High Court has made it clear that temple agricultural land cannot be diverted for commercial purposes.
It ordered the government not to move ahead with proposals to set up a permanent exhibition on 35 acres The Court further directed that the gravel dumped on the land be removed and the property restored to its agricultural condition, and stressed that temple lands meant for agriculture cannot be converted for non-agricultural or commercial use.The matter was adjourned to October 6 for further hearing.
Meantime, the government argued that the land was already converted into non-agricultural land earlier and could be allotted for commercial purposes. It stated that the exhibition would last only 56 days and that organizers had paid Rs 45 lakh, which would benefit temple development.